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HISTORY OF HITCHIN
SOME PRESS OPINIONS OF
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
VOLUME ONE
‘Those who like to read history but are averse
from the drum-and-trumpet variety which
concerns itself with wars and the truces and
treaties which ended one and led to another,
will find relief in Mr. Hine’s history of his
own town. ... Mr. Hine has won for himself
high rank among those artists who prefer to
be the Lady Cho’s muniaturists "—Times.
‘The book 1s undoubtedly a genuine con-
tribution, the very warp and woof of history,
and should make an appeal far beyond the
particular parish upon which the author’s
searchlight has been cast.’—Dazly Telegraph
‘So well has he done his work that one looks
forward to the second volume of his work with
almost as much excitement as the readers of a
century ago must have looked forward to the
publication of the concluding volume of a
novel.’—Daily News. ‘A remarkably cheap,
valuable and well-documented study ’—
Saturday Review. ‘ Vivid sidelights on Enylish
life through the ages.’—Graphic. ‘A delight-
ful book.’—Evenng News ‘The book indeed
is a joy to read.’—Sunday Times.
SPN YF WG Jo UOlssassod ayi UT seoI’y januuty Aq ZuNuIed ayy Wor
SFZI ACIS Lod S1v fd-LIVAVIA: \THOLIH
HISTORY OF
HITCHIN
By REGINALD L. HINE,
F.S.A., F.R.HuIst.S.
London
George Allen & Unwin Ltd
Museum Street
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Ferst publsshed in 1929
(All rights reserved)
Printed wn Great Britain by
Unuin Brothers Ltd , Woking
BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION A COPY OF THIS HISTORY OF
THE ROYAL MANOR OF HITCHIN HAS BEEN PRESENTED BY
THE AUTHOR TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING, AND A FURTHER
COPY TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
PAGE
MINSDEN CHAPEL . ‘ ; ‘ : ; : ; ; : 23
THE BAPTISTS . i : F : ; ; ; ; ‘ . 44
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS . ; : é : ‘ ; . Qf
THE QUAKERS . : : : , F ; 135
SPORTS AND PASTIMES . : : F 238
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 276
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 327
PLACE-NAMES, FIELD-NAMES AND SURNAMES 5 350
THE FIRE BRIGADE . : ‘ , ‘ . 382
HITCHIN CHRONOLOGY . ; é ; : 408
CONCLUSION . ; ‘ ‘ ; : : 437
APPENDICES—
LIST OF VICARS , ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ - 444
LIST OF THOSE WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR . ‘ 447
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA, VOL. I. : ; ; - 451
BIBLIOGRAPHY n P , , ; . 454
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS . i 504
INDEX a 2 ; , a ne 511
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I would Ikke a portrait of one of the old ladtes of the
Biggin by Rembrandt, a Hitchin from Windmill Hill by
Turner, a Mormng Scene from the Market Place by
Mullet, or a Landscape at Purwell by Claude Lorratne.
HERBERT W. TOMPKINS (67. 220).
HITCHIN MARKET-PLACE, WEST SIDE, 1845 : ‘ . Frontispiece
From the painting by Samuel Lucas 1n the possession of Sam Lucas.
ON OR FACING PAGE
MINSDEN CHAPEL. . 23
From a study in sie by J. C. Biches, 18428 at St. ‘Albans Abbey.
SIR ROBERT LYTTON, KNIGHT OF THE BATH, PRIVY COUNCILLOR,
UNDER-TREASURER OF ENGLAND, KEEPER OF THE KING’S
WARDROBE AND LORD OF MINSDEN : 26
From a painting 1n the possession of the Earl of Lyon at Kneb-
worth House
OLD BOWSTOCK . “4 ee a re ae ee
From a drawing by Samuel Teas G)
THE MINSDEN GHOST . : : 39
From a photograph by T. W. Latchraate nken in oon:
THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE OF THE HITCHIN BAPTISTS ° 44
From a drawing made by George Newton of a painting by Saniuel
Lucas 1n the vestry of the present chapel.
A VIEW UP TILEHOUSE STREET ° . ° ° ° . 5°
From a photograph by T. B. Latchmore, 1868.
THE COTTAGE BY BUNYAN’S DELL : ‘ i 56
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
BULL CORNER: SHOWING JOHN WILSON’S HOUSE : ; "4,
From a photograph by T. B. Latchmore, circa 1875.
THE REV. JOHN GEARD . P : ‘ ‘ 88
From the engraving by S. Hetinuh of a painting be J. Rabineon:
i. The drawings by Samuel Lucas 1n this List of Illustrations are, unless
otherwise stated, in the possession of Arthur Lucas of Croft Moor, Dean
Park Road, Bournemouth. The dates of them, unless definitely given, are
between 1845 and 1862.
12 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
ON OR FACING PAGE
THE REV. JOHN BROAD . : - 95
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
THE OLD BACK STREET MEETING-HOUSE, 1690-1855 . 98
From a photograph by T. W. Latchmore
THE REV. JOSEPH HUSSEY . .; 102
From an engraving by Joseph Marshall, 1722
THE REV. JOHN GUYSE .. . 106
From the engraving by Faber of a sinene by Van Bleeck, 1733
THE REV. EDWARD HITCHIN . 114
From an engraving by Carrington Bowles
THE REV. WILLIAM GORDON, D.D. I22
From the engraving by Chapman of a eintine By Hayter
THE BACK STREET SUNDAY SCHOOL, 1803 . 124
From a painting by an unknown hand 1n the church safe
THE REV. WILLIAM WAYNE . 130
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas in the possession of Miss Beck.
THE GRACECHURCH MEETING, CIRCA 1770 : 135
From the painting by an unknown artist 1n the possession of Miss
A. M_ Lucas of Wratten, Hitchin Reproduced by permission
from a block belonging to Messrs Macmillan & Co
GEORGE FOX 140
From a painting by Sir Peter Lely at Swarthmore College,
Pennsylvania.
FRIENDS MEETING-HOUSE AT HERTFORD 147
From a photograph by E. E. Squires, 1929
JAMES HACK TUKE *s HOUSE, THE CROFT . 162
From a painting by James Lobley 1n the possession of Mrs. Lindsell
A HITCHIN BEGGAR MAN ; ; . 168
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
THOMAS SHILLITOE PREACHING OUTSIDE A GIN-SHOP AT DUBLIN . 173
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas 1n the possession of Miss Beck
of Amwell, Herts.
HITCHIN QUAKERESSES AT CHESS . ° ‘ ‘ . . 175
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas in the possession of Miss Beck.
THOMAS SHILLITOE IN HIS RUSSIAN CLOTHES. : - 180
From a sketch by Samuel Lucas.
ILLUSTRATIONS
ON OR FACING
RACHEL LUCAS.
From a drawing by Saiiiel fete.
SAMUEL SPAVOLD
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
MERCY RANSOM
From a silhouette 1n the possession of Mrs Gibson of Saffron
Walden
STEPHEN GRELLET . . : ° .
From a silhouette in Friends House Reference Library
THOMAS SHILLITOE
From a silhouette in Friends House Reference Library
NOS. 86-—go BANCROFT, SHOWING MERCY RANSOM’S HOUSE. ‘
From a photograph by T W Latchmore, 1929
ANN LUCAS .
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
WILLIAM LUCAS, 1786-1846 , ‘ ‘ ‘
From a painting by Samuel Lucas 1n ihe possession of Sam Lucas.
THE QUAKER WHOSE EFFIGY WAS BURNED ° < °
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
SAMUEL ALLEN ° ° °
From a painting by Samuel Lucas 1n the possession of Miss Ida
Mary Lucas.
PHOEBE ALLEN e e e e e e e e tJ e e
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas 1n the possession of Miss Beck
of Amwell, Herts.
JAMES BACKHOUSE . ° * ° . ° ; .
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
KEY TO THE YEARLY MEETING ° ° : . ° ° ° 7
LONDON YEARLY MEETING ABOUT 1840 ‘ ‘ ; ‘ : ;
From a painting by Samuel Lucas at Friends House.
LINDLEY MURRAY HOAG , : . . . é
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas in diet possession of Miss Beck.
13
PAGE
187
195
198
198
198
201
206
215
217
217
219
222
223
224
14 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
ON OR FACING PAGE
BENJAMIN SEEBOHM ; ;
From the engraved portrait prehied to the Mewion of ‘Benjanin
Seebohm by his sons.
WILLIAM TUKE AT THE AGE OF EIGHTY-SEVEN
From a painting by H S. Tuke, R.A.
SAMUEL ALLEN READING ‘ THE HERALD OF PEACE’
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
THOMAS WHITING READING ‘ UNCLE TOM’S CABIN,’ 1852
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
JOSEPH SHARPLES
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
A WINTER SCENE ON LAX’S POND
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas 1n the possession of Stephen Lucas.
MEDIEVAL TRIPTYCH: BOWLS, DICE, SNOWBALLING . é ;
From Roy MSS.,BM ,20,D. IV, f. 187, BM ,facs 233, Pl. Xx:
Add. MSS , B M. agege Reproduced from L1feand Work of the
People of England, by D. Hartley and M. M. Elliot, by permission
of B. T. Batsford, Ltd.
AN ACROBAT IN HITCHIN MARKET
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
THE COCK YARD ° . ‘
From a painting by Samuel Lucas.
THE DANISH ENCAMPMENT. ° .
From a painting by Samuel Lucas in the possession of H. A.
Powell, Pilgrim Wood, Littleton Cross, Guildford.
SUPPER AT THE SWAN
From a painting by Samuel ica:
A HITCHIN POLITICIAN ‘
From a sketch by Samuel Lucas.
DAN HAWKINS . . ° . ° . ° ‘
From a drawing by Saisisel Lucas.
THE HITCHIN MAYERS. ‘ ‘ . .
From a woodcut in Hone’s Every Day Book, =r 1, p. 567.
THE HITCHIN MAYERS’ SONG. : :
e e e ° = es
226
226
227
229
232
238
242
248
249
251
252
254
255
257
259
ILLUSTRATIONS
ON OR FACIKG
THE THREE TUNS, TILEHOUSE STREET . ‘ * . ‘ ‘ .
From a photograph by T. W. Latchmore, rgoo.
A STROLLING PLAYER ‘ 7 ;
From a drawing by Samuel ee in the possession of Miss Beck.
THE BROTHERHOOD HOUSE, RIDGE TILE
CHARLES PRIME ‘ ° - . .
From a drawing by Sarauel Teas:
FREDERICK PETER DELME-RADCLIFFE AND HIS HARRIERS, 1833 .
From a painting by the Rev. Charles Delmé-Radcliffe at Hitchin
Priory.
SAMUEL LUCAS, WILLIAM LUCAS, AND RICHARD LOW BECK OFF TO
THE LAKES IN WM. NORRIS’S ONE-HORSE CHAISE
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas 1n the possession of Miss Beck.
BOATING ON OUGHTON HEAD °
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
HITCHIN SPINSTER AT HER SPINET
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
CRAFT, THE TOWN CRIER ‘ .
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
JOSEPH SHARPLES SKATING °
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
MEDIEVAL TRIPTYCH: THE CAPTURE, THE EXAMINATION, THE EXECU-
TION CART : ;
From Harleian MSS. 4374, p. 129. Reproduced from Life and
Work of the People of England by permission of B. T.
Batsford, Ltd.
HITCHIN MARKET. -
From a drawing stribated to Birket Foster, circa 1845.
STURGEON’S TOMB IN THE SOUTH CHAPEL OF ST. MARY’S
Drawn by Geoffry Lucas, F.R.1I.B.A., from the surviving ienehis
of the tomb.
AN ALCHEMIST AT WORK
From the engraving of a painting by Pisies Breughel, 1558.
15
PAGE
261
262
263
264
265
266
268
271
273
275
277
284
290
292
16 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
ON OR FACING FAGE
A HITCHIN GLEANER : ‘ . : : ; - 295
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
‘MORE COAT THAN MAN.’ BACK VIEW OF HITCHIN CONSTABLE . 298
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
CAPTAIN JAMES WHITNEY “ : ° . ° »- 302
From the engraving of a portrait by an artist sinewa B.M. Ref.
No. 1868, 6-12, 1768.
HITCHIN MAGISTRATE IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT WITH GOUT 305
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
A HITCHIN MAGISTRATE . ; - iri
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
THE RED HART GATEWAY : - 312
From a painting by Wiliam H Thorp, FRIBA, 1925, 1n the
possession of Mrs. A B. Lucas of Hitchin.
THE CHURCH HOUSE: VIEW FROM THE GARDEN * ° 316
From a photograph by Harry Meyer, 1929
HITCHIN STRAW-PLAIT MARKET. < ‘ : - 319
From a photograph taken by T. B Pee in 186 5
THE IDLE APPRENTICE EXECUTED AT TYBURN : ° ‘ ° 321
From an engraving by William Hogarth
ARMSTRONG. ' ' : : ~ 3a3
From a drawing by Sate Lucas
MR. JUSTICE HAWKINS . : 325
From a painting by George Richmond, R A, dated ea in ite
possession of Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins.
DEATH-BED SCENE: WITH LAWYER MAKING THE WILL ° ° » 327
From B.M. Print Room: Crispin de Passe. Ref. No. 6, eee
Reproduced by permission of B. T. Batsford, Ltd., from the work
above cited.
Iz.
THOMAS GORHAM PIERSON . ee ee ee ee
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
ILLUSTRATIONS 17
ON OR FACING PAGE
REBECCA COLLINS MAKING HER OWN WILL i ‘ ‘ - 340
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
JOHN HAWKINS TAKING INSTRUCTIONS FOR MRS. ELIZABETH HAILEY’S
WILL IN THE CHURCH HOUSE - 345
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas, 1862
HENRY TRIGG’S COFFIN . : - 347
From a drawing by C. Brock
THE HITCHIN DOCTORS, 1848 : : : ; - 348
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF HITCHIN AS A PLACE-NAME . . ° - 351
BANCROFT, LOOKING NORTH-EAST . ° ° . . ° - 352
The house where the English Village Commumty was written is in
the centre of the picture.
THE WILL OF AETHELGIFU ‘ : - 356
From B.M., Cotton MS , Nero, D 1,f 152.
CHARLTON MILL, 1848 . 358
From a painting by Samuel Lucas in the possession of Miss Thomp-
son, Elmside, Hitchin.
BANCROFT, LOOKING SOUTH-EAST . . ° - ° ° e 360
From a painting by Harry Hine, circa 1895
THE BOOT INN : : ; - 362
From a photograph By of li Ww. Paiehiaars: 1895.
THE PLOUGH INN : - 362
From a drawing by W. C Alexander, 1898, in tie possession of
Miss A. M Lucas
AARON FISHER, THE HITCHIN KNIFE-GRINDER ° ° ° ° ° 364
From a photograph taken by Thomas Bates Blow early 1n the
seventies on one of the experimental gelatino-bromide plates manu-
factured by himself.
STAFFORD ALLEN. , ; ‘ ; ‘ - 367
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas.
JAMES SWANNELL . : : ; : . é 5 : . 392
From a drawing by Garnet Lucas.
VOL. II. B
18 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
ON OR FACING PAGE
PORTRAIT OF A HITCHIN SCOLD . . ‘ . ° ° 379
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas in the possession of Miss Beck.
CONDER’S FIRE IN HITCHIN MARKET PLACE, 1836. : ; . 382
From a drawing, done at the time of the fire, by Samuel Lucas in
the possession of Miss Beck of Amwell.
THE EARLIEST FIRE-ENGINE . : . 386
From an engraving on the Sun Fire Office policies of insurance.
GUY FAWKES . : : : ‘ : ; . . 393
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
HITCHIN FIRE BRIGADE AT LUTON HOO 5 ‘: : 395
From an engraving by Thomas Stevens, dated ee
THE HITCHIN FIRE BRIGADE IN 1881 . . . . . =. « 399
From a photograph by T. B. Latchmore.
WHERE 1S THE FIRE? : : ; , : : : ’ - 403
From a drawing by ‘Tom Hood.
THE COOPERS’ ARMS: BACK VIEW . ; 408
From a painting by J. C. Buckler, Ban: at St. " Albans Abbey
Church.
TEMPLE DINSLEY . . : . 410
From a drawing by J c Buckler, 1832, at St. Aibahs Abbey
Church.
HITCHIN FROM THE AIR e A . ° 412
From a photograph by Aero Films. Ltd , 1927.
ST. MARY’S: VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-EAST . - 414
From a drawing by J. C. Buckler, 1832, at St Albans Abbey Church.
SIR ROWLAND LYTTON . ; : ; : - 416
From a painting at Knebworth House.
THE OLD FREE SCHOOL . ° 417
From a drawing by J C Buckler, ee at - St Aibeak Abbey
Church.
SKINNER’S ALMSHOUSES . é - 418
From a drawing by J. C. Buckler, ieee. at St Albans Abbey Church
THE HITCHIN VOLUNTEERS’ SLOW AND QUICK MARCH é 421
From the Marches Composed for the Use of the Hertfordshire
Volunteers, by Charles Bridgman (organist of All Saints’, Hertford),
circa 1800, p.19. B.M. press-mark g. 137 (28).
ILLUSTRATIONS 19
ON OR FACING PAGE
MAP OF HITCHIN TOWN, 1820 .
: - 423
Compiled by William Wilshere for Clutterbuck’ s History of Hert-
Sordshsre.
ANCIENT COTTAGES FORMERLY IN PARK STREET . ° 425
From a painting by Joseph Jackson Lister 1n the possession of
Miss Beck.
COCK STREET, NOW HIGH STREET, IN 1840 % : . 428
From a coloured engraving by Edward S. Austin of Bedford
BANCROFT IN 1865 430
From a photograph by T. B Latchmore.
THE MARKET IN BANCROFT 433
From a photograph by T. B. arcane: 1895.
VIEW OF HITCHIN FROM THE ROOF OF THE WATER TOWER : 436
From a photograph by T W. Latchmore, 1927
FOOT’S WAGON 441
From a drawing by Samuel isieas in the possession of Miss Beck.
HITCHIN WAR MEMORIAL e . S : ‘ ° - 450
From a drawing by J. F. Crcncued:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IN addition to the acknowledgments in Vol. I, which for further services
rendered are here repeated, and to those expressed in the forefront of
each chapter, I have to acknowledge my indebtedness—
1. To the Duke of Rutland, the Earl of Lytton, P.C., G.C.LE.,
Viscount Hampden, K.C.B., C.M.G., Sir Leicester Harmsworth, M.P.,
Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, Miss Wilshere, Miss A. M. Lucas, Miss
Matilda Lucas, William Tindall Lucas, Stephen Lucas, Francis Ransom,
Guy Salusbury Hughes, and Messrs. Hawkins & Co., for leave to
inspect and make use of deeds, family papers and portraits 1n their
possession.
2. To Ralph Delmé-Radcliffe, for placing the Hitchin Priory
manuscripts at my disposal for the last twelve years, and for leave to
reproduce some family portraits.
3. To Sir Charles Longmore, K.C.B , Clerk of the Peace for Hert-
fordshire, for giving me access to the County Records in the Muniment
Room at Hertford; and to W. Le Hardy, FSA, for allowing me to
see the MS. of the unpublished volumes.
4. To H. S. Kingsford, MA, Assistant Secretary of the Society
of Antiquaries, H. C Andrews, M A., and E. E. Squires, Secretary and
Editor respectively of the East Herts Archzological Society, and
F G.Emmuson, Clerk of Records to the Bedfordshire County Council,
for supplying MSS. and information.
5. To Lady Gibb, Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, Theodore Lucas, Hugh
Phillips, F. Gordon Wood, and Michael Unwin Heathcote, for pre-
senting plates to this volume.
6. To the memory of the research workers and secretaries who huve
died of old age in the service of this history, and to the Rev. J. Harvey
Bloom, R. W. Marston, C. E. Simons, Eve Brackenbury, E. C. Pirkis,
K. E. Foster, and K. D. Little, who have lived on to see 1t through.
7. To Florence Lee Hine, my organizing secretary, private secretary
and wife, for encouraging, enrolling and corresponding with the 1,062
subscribers to this work.
DIRECTIONS TO THE READER
1. The authorities for all statements of fact are fully set out and
numbered 1n the Bibliography at the end of the volume. In the text
only the denoting number is given. Where the authority is of a general
character and is frequently employed, the page, and if necessary the
volume, of the particular reference 1s added. Thus (601) at the end
of a sentence means that the work or manuscript so numbered 1n the
Bibliography is a sufficient reference; (702. 27) signifies the work or
manuscript so numbered and its 27th page or folio; (892. 2. 46) shows
that the second volume and the 46th page or folio of the work numbered
as 892 should be consulted.
2. Footnotes are distinguished by Roman numerals.
3. The index to both volumes will be found from page 509 onwards.
4. Will those readers and reviewers who discover any errors 1n the
text kindly bring them to the notice of the author, so that they may be
set right in a future edition?
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
MINSDEN CHAPEL (i)
‘ But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time.’
SHAKESPEARR’S Sonnets, 55.
I
peace’ which the ruthless hand of time and
the rough hands of men have spared to the
inhabitants of Hitchin—Oughton Head,
Gaping Hills, Mount Pleasant, Charlton
Hamlet, Wellhead, Wainwood, Nine-
springs, Purwell—there is none quite so
haunting or peaceful as this neglected
ruin. It is not so remote: two and a
See half miles along the Codicote road to
the ‘ Royal Oak,’ and a short burst up Chapel-foot way, will
bring you to it. Yet there are thousands of folk in Hitchin
town who have never even heard of Minsden Chapel. The
memory of this secluded place (some derive its name from A.S.
meos = moss and dene =valley) (ii) has been almost covered
with the moss of time. It is only the more rugged stones of
history that still show through.
In that indestructible monolith, the Domesday Survey, it
is reported that ‘ King William holds Menlesdene; it is assessed
at 4 hides. There is land for 8 ploughs. In the demesne there
i. I wish to express my thanks to Canon C. W. Foster, F.S.A., for searching
the episcopal registers at Lincoln and for revising this chapter 1n 1ts manuscript
form.
u. A fanciful derivation that cannot be supported. Professor Allen
Mawer, Hon. Sec. of the English Place Name Society, whom I consulted, says:
‘ The earlier forms, Menlesdene in Domesday, and Mendlesdene, Mondesdene,
Mundleston, Meddlesdene of the fourteenth century point quite clearly to an
O.E. personal name MyYNDEL as the first element. ‘This would be a regular
diminutive formation from the common O.E. name Mund(a), and would
appear in Hertfordshire as Mundel, Mondel, and Mendel. The forms forbid
any association with O.E. meos.’
24 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
are 2 hides and 23 virgates. A priest with 8 villeins and 2 cot-
tars have 3 ploughs between them, and there could be two
more. There are 6 serfs. Meadow land there is sufficient for
1 plough team, and pasture sufficient for the livestock of the vill.
There is woodland to feed 30 swine. ‘The manor belonged, and
still belongs (Facutt et jacet in), to Hiz. Earl Harold held it’ (461).
By the next century the manor had passed out of the king’s
hands to one Guy de Bovencourt, in the hands of whose family,
however, 1t did not long remain. In 1204 Bovencourt’s heir
was ‘found with the king’s enemies’; whereupon King John
decreed a forfeiture and made over the manor for good money
to Hugh de Baliol. Bovencourt’s tenant, Elyas de Eston, appears
to have been overwhelmed in his master’s ruin. ‘There was no
question about his having been with the king’s enemies. He
had been innocently cultivating the ploughlands of Menlesdene.
But he was disseized none the less, and his goods and chattels
were taken away by the Sheriff. He also had to pay good money
before he was reinstated (462-3).
The Baliols were to hold Minsden for just a century, until
the fatal day came when John de Baliol, King of Scotland, was
‘found with the king’s enemies,’ and all his lands were forfeited,
1296. For a time Edward I proposed to keep Minsden in his
royal hands, but, wishing to reward Robert de Kendale, his
faithful Constable of Dover Castle, he bestowed on him the
forfeited manor of Hitchin in which Minsden lay; whereupon
a pretty point of law arose. Had Minsden, after all, a separate
existence? ‘The manor belonged and still belongs (Facuit et
jacet tn) to Hiz.’ Was it not written soin Domesday? And, if
so, would not Minsden pass as an appurtenance on any grant
of Hiz? As soon as the King had set out on his campaign in
Scotland, Kendale entered upon Minsden, and added its four
hides to the five he held at Hitchin. For his lifetime he enjoyed
possession and the nine points of the law; but a day of reckoning
arrived. A king who was driven to pawn the Crown jewels to
carry on his wars was not likely to forgo his right to six hundred
acres of good land. For once the one point of the law prevailed;
Sir Edward de Kendale was ousted and Minsden regained its
independence (31. 3. 32).
In the reign of Edward II] the Manor was conferred first for
life and later in tail upon ‘ our beloved esquire John de Beverle
for services rendered by him not without danger of body and
MINSDEN CHAPEL 25
expense of substance” (ii1); with the privilege, added later in
1366, that ‘he and his heirs may have free warren in all his
demesne lands at his Manor of Mendelsden so far as those lands
are not within the bounds of our forest, and so that no one may
enter those lands to chase in them or to take anything which
pertains to warren without the leave of the said John under a
penalty of ten pounds, payable to us.’ The witnesses to this
grant are ‘ the venerable fathers, the Bishop of Ely, our Chan-
cellor, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, our treasurer, John, Duke of
Lancaster, and Edmund, Earl of Cambridge, our dearest sons,
Edward le Despenser, John atte lee, steward of our household,’
and others (465-6). As Beverle died without male issue in 1380,
the manor descended in thirds to his wife Amice, who married
Robert Bardolf; his daughter Anne, who married William Lang-
ford, and his daughter Elizabeth, who married Sir John Dauntesey
(467). As Walter, the son and heir of Elizabeth and John Daunte-
sey, inherited his third when he was only twelve years of age,
‘the keepinge of his lands during minority ’ was granted for the
consideration of {£100 to Thomas de la Croys and Peter Walbere;
they on their part undertaking to maintain the several houses
and buildings in good repair and to render accounts at the
Exchequer (469). But instead of observing their undertaking
they carried off a great part of the goods and chattels in the
manor houses, refused to account for the rents, assaulted the
lord’s servants, and committed all manner of wastes and dilapida-
tions. In the end the unjust stewards were arrested and brought
before the King. Justice was done; but restitution was impossible,
and Walter’s third was hardly worth the having when six years
later, 1412, he came into the estate. To put all doubt at rest,
the attainment of his majority was proved with unusual care.
Before the Jurors assembled ‘on the Feast of Corpus Christi,’
1.. The Patent Rolls from 1355-77 show what a favourite he was. Ap-
parently he could do anything he hiked with Edward III in his dotage. As
for ‘ expense of substance,’ it was money well laid out and brought back a
hundredfold. ‘There are innumerable grants of escheats, wardships, and
forfeitures ‘ without rendering anything to the King’s Exchequer for the same.”
In addition, he was allowed ‘two tuns of wine yearly, one at Christmas and the
other at Easter ’ (1363); was appointed Constable of Limerick Castle (1363);
Keeper of the King’s Park at Eltham (1369); Keeper of Leeds Castle (1372);
and was granted the monopoly. ..lling sweet wines 1n the towns of Boston,
Lancoln, Stamford and Grantham (1374). With the old King’s death and
the accession of Richard II this flow of honours ceased. The sweet wine
ef life turned sour In three years (1381) John de Beverle was dead.
26 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
William Bydyete, being sworn and examined, ‘ says that he is
eighty years of age, and that he knows well that Walter Dauntesey
came of age on the Tuesday before the feast of St. Gregory,
Pope, last past, because on the day of the birth of the said Walter
he was made reeve (prepositus) of Sir John Dauntesey, father of
the said Walter.’ William Bydyete, junior, who followed, ‘ says
he is aged sixty and knows well that the said Walter is of the said
age, because he had a son born and baptized on the day of his
birth Robert by name. He died suddenly on the same day.’
William Toym, aged sixty-five, declared that ‘on the day of
Walter’s birth he was lying in the bed with his wife Agnes at
dawn, and a certain Thomas Takerwell came to him in order
that Agnes should come to the said Elizabeth, mother of Walter,
to be her midwife, and so he had good knowledge thereof.’
Thomas Player, John Bremelham, and Robert Cnedeworth,
‘who are of the age of 50 years, know well that Walter is of the
said age because they saw William Camme, Abbot of Malmesbury,
who had gone to be godfather to the said Walter, riding back
in the afternoon towards his Abbey; and he fell from his horse
by the bridge and nearly broke his right thigh.’ . . . ‘ And so the
Jurors have full knowledge of the age of the said Walter ’ (471).
A few years later Walter sold his one-third share in Minsden
to his cousin, Robert Langford, who had previously bought up
the share of Amice Bardolf. Accordingly, when Langford died
in 1419 the undivided manor of Minsden devolved upon his
son, Edward (472). And so it passed from father to son until
Sir John Langford in 1502 sold his inheritance to William
Lytton (iv). From the Lyttons it passed, on failure of male issue,
in 1555 to the Brocketts, and from the Brocketts it passed (cerca
1615) to the Reades of Hatfield and Brockett Hall, and from them
—once again on failure of male issue in 1712—to the Dashwoods,
who hold it to this day (79. 3. 11).
II
It is not so much the Manor that one thinks of at Minsden,
however, as the church. And there again the inquiry of the
stranger, ‘ What mean ye by these stones? ’ is so hard to satisfy.
iv. Of the ancient and knightly family of Langford, landowners in Hertford-
shire from the fourteenth century, Willaam Francis Langford of Hitchin is the
sole surviving representative.
SIR ROBERT LYTTON. LORD OF MINSDEN
MINSDEN CHAPEL 27
Its history, like its walls, is in ruins, obscured—indeed, almost
buried—beneath the moss and ivy of oblivious time.
It bore, as we know, the name of St. Nicholas—an early and
popular dedication, not only beside the sea, where he was looked
on as the patron of sailors, but inland, too, as protector of children
and poor folk (v). We know also that this chapel of ease served
the adjoining hamlet of Langley as well as the farming com-
munity of Minsden; and, standing as it did upon St. Alban’s
way, it gave its shelter and many a traveller’s mass to the pilgrims
passing by. For the rest, one has only such fitful rays of light
as deeds and wills can throw. One most unusual indenture
there is, dated in 1450, by which Robert de Walso (i.e. Walsworth,
another hamlet of Hitchin) made over all his lands and tenements
to his son, on condition that the latter should provide him with
victuals and clothing suitable to his station, and a horse on which
he could ride to church at Minsden. We learn from another
that an acre of land at Minsden, afterwards called Lamp Acre,
was given for the maintenance of a light within the church.
John Pulter, by will dated 1485, ‘ gives to the reparacion of the
chapell of Seint Nicholas in Mynesden in the paroch of Hichen,
3s. 4d.” John Emmyng, by his will dated 1524, gives ‘ to Mynys-
den chapell, 20d.’ James Cheetham, by his will, 1523, gives
22 quarters of malt. Nicholas Mattock, who was born at
Minsden and baptised with the name of its child-protecting
Saint, in spite of the wealth he afterwards accumulated, gives
nothing. Margerie Astrye, on the other hand, though she left
this hamlet to be the wife of the Lord Mayor of London, was
not unmindful of Minsden when she came to die: ‘ 1524. I give
and bequeath unto our lady Chapell of Mynnesden nygh Hichyn
where I was born a chalis with a paten of silver all gilt which
is occupied in my chapell to pray for my soul and all christian
soules.’ By the will of George Burwell, 1540, ‘ a piece of ground
called Wellis shall never be sold nor made away by no manner
of means, but to remayne from heire to heire for ever. Also I
will that out of this piece of ground shall be deducted and taken
yerelie for every yeare so long as the world standeth XLd. by
yere for a yerely obytt to be kepte in Mynsden chapell so long
as the chapell staundethe. If the chapell go doune (vi), it to
v. There are s1x other churches 1n Hertfordshire dedicated to this saint,
one of them being Stevenage, which 1s within sight of Minsden.
vi. A very significant phrase, showing how early the chapel had begun to
decay.
28 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
be done yerely in Hytchin churche.’ John Godfrey, 1544,
gives ‘to the high altar of Mynsden chapell a bushell weate.’
Margaret Grave, 1545, bequeaths ‘one Kettil with a bend to
the chapell of Mynesdene to this intent that it serve for making
of the waxe for the same chapell; and, if so be that any that
longs [belongs] to the said chapell have neade of it, the same
kettil to be lendide to them for the space of three days and so
to be restored to the said chappell agayn ’ (477).
From the inventory ‘ concerning the goods belonging to the
chapell of Mynsdely in Langlye,’ made by Edward VI’s Com-
missioners in 1552 (478), we gain a further glimpse into the
interior :-—
‘One Chalice of silver weighing VIII oz. Memo ‘There
is lead or tyn in the bottom.
One crosse of copper and gilte with a crosse cloth of green
sarcenet stened [i.e. stained].
One vestment of white damaske and tawny vellat [i.e. velvet]
with all things thereunto belonging.
A Corporas case of tissue with a cloth in it.
ii playne aulter clothes.
ii bells in the steple.
11 hande bells.’
It seems as though the people of Minsden lost all heart in
their church services after the Reformation. By the condescen-
sion of the Commissioners the chalice was excepted from their
spoliation that it might become the cup in the new office (1552)
of the Lord’s Supper. But it was to be very seldom used. ‘Too
few in number and too poor, the church-folk of St. Nicholas
were unable to provide a minister for themselves; and they were
much too independent to agree to the suggestion of the Hitchin
Vicar that they should come down of a Sunday to St. Mary’s.
As need arose—perhaps five or six times a year—John Huddleston
(1604-1621) and Stephen Peirce (1621~1636) would ride up to
Minsden for a baptism, a marriage, or a burial; but for the
statutory services on the Lord’s Day they were less and less
inclined to come (vii). With each year the rift between the
mother and the daughter church widened; with each year the
neglect of St. Nicholas grew worse, until in 1650 the Commis-
vii. The original registers are lost. But Bishops’ transcripts exist at
Lincoln for the years 1608-1610, 1615, 1616, 1618, 1620-1641 (481).
MINSDEN CHAPEL 29
sioners appointed to inquire into the state of Ecclesiastical
Benefices were driven to report that there was a chapel called
Miunsden Chapel, but that they were ignorant of its value; that
the privy tithes belonging to it were worth {£13 per annum;
that no dues had been paid to the Vicar of Hitchin for many
years; that it had been destitute of a preaching minister for
divers years last past; that the chapel had fallen into great decay;
and that they presented it fit to be made a parish church (482).
III
However astonished the ‘ hamblettors ’ may have been at the
Commissioners’ presentment, they did what they could to
deserve the honour which those in authority proposed to confer
upon them. Here was a chance to gain at one stroke the inde-
pendence they so ardently desired. As soon as their means
permitted, therefore, they set to work in earnest upon the repair
of the chapel that might yet be made a church. The unhappy
issue of that endeavour can be read in retrospect in a petition
of the year 1688: ‘ To the Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners
for Ecclesiastical Causes. The humble petition of John Holton
and John Farr with others, the inhabitants of the Hambletts
of Preston and Langley, humbly sheweth that for tyme beyond
the memory of man there hath been an ancient Chappell called
Minsden Chapell belonging to the Hamletts of Preston and
Langley unto which the inhabitants usually resorted on Sundayes
and holy dayes to heare Divine Service and Sermons, and to
receive Sacraments, have Christenengs and buryings of dead soe
often as was occasion. That the chappell hath always been
repaired at the proper costs and charges of the inhabitants of the
said hamblets of Preston and Langley; only in consideration
thereof they have been of old praiseworthy, lawful, and prescriptive
custom free and exempt from all repaires of the church of
Hitchin, the inhabitants of Hitchin haveing allways repaired
their own church. That about 14 or 15 years since, the said
Chappell of Minsden being very much out of repaire, the Inhabi-
tants of the said hambletts did amongst themselves raise a con-
siderable sum of money in order to repair the same, which money
was placed in the hands of 2 persons who died some short tyme
after, and soe the money was Lost, and tho’ severall materialls
30 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
were provided for repaires yet by rason of the said loss the work
was discouraged until about 3 yeares since, about which tyme
the Lord Bishop of Lincolne, having notice thereof, ordered the
inhabitants of Preston and Langley to repaire the said Chappell,
in obedience to which order the said hamblettors made a rate,
and have proceeded soe far in the repaires as to lay on a new
roofe; and one and all of them except Sir John Reade unani-
mously resolved to finish the same. But the said Sir John
Reade, refusing to pay his rate to the said chapell, and endeavour-
ing as much as in his power to discourage the said work, hath
thereby encouraged the parishoners of Hitchin to rate all the
said hamblettors to the repaires of Hitchin church; and, although
your petitioners were never rated before to the church of Hitchin,
yet the said parishoners of Hitchin brought 24 actions against
the inhabitants of the said hambletts ’ (484).
In the chapter on the Churchwardens (Vol. I, pp. 241-2)
we have already followed in some detail the proceedings which
the petition continues, almost tearfully, to relate. It is enough
to remind the reader that the ‘ hamblettors,’ having neither the
money nor the influence of their opponents, were routed all along
the line; losing their case before the Archdeacon of Huntingdon,
before the Lords Commissioners at St. Albans, and again on a
rehearing before the Lords Commissioners at Doctors’ Commons.
Two of the petitioners, John Holton and John Farr, refusing to
obey the Orders of the Court, had been first adjudged ‘to be
contumacious in conduct ’ and then ‘ signified, excommunicated
and cast into prison’ (484). Betrayed by Sir John Reade, the
Lord of their own Manor, abandoned by their Bishop, unprotected
even by St. Nicholas, the protector of the innocent and poor,
the remaining ‘hamblettors ’ bowed to the inevitable. For the
future they would pay their dues under protest to St. Mary’s,
and leave their own chapel of ill-ease to go to rack and ruin.
By 1690 they are pleased to be able to send an exaggerated report
to the archdeacon that ‘the Chapel is now totally Ruinated,
stripped, uncovered, decayed and dimolished ’” (484. 54).
It had been some little comfort to them to see Sir John
Reade also going to rack and ruin. One after another his petitions
were rejected just as theirs had been. Year after year he presented
himself at Court, ‘ praying in consideration of the sufferings
and cruelties I endured in Ireland to be granted £6,000 or £600
per annum for interest till that were paid ’; a petition that his
MINSDEN CHAPEL 31
daughter, Elizabeth Reade, ‘ being in great distress,’ was still
presenting to a callous sovereign and an empty Treasury after
Sir John was dead. It pleased them also to see their oppressor
being oppressed in his turn for refusing to serve as Sheriff. The
fines imposed upon him for his ‘ contumacious conduct’ ran
into thousands of pounds, to avoid payment of which he was
forced ‘to withdraw 80 miles from his mansion house’ (viii).
But most of all they exulted in his discomfiture at the hands of
his second wife. By his first wife, Susanne, the daughter of
Sir Thomas Style, he had five sons and four daughters. By
his second wife, Dame Alissimon, the widow of the Hon. Francis
Pierrepont, he had a fortune of £8,000; but he treated her as
if she were a pauper. For years she endured his indignities and
his desertions; and then she turned on him. ‘To the Minsden
‘hamblettors ’ it was satisfying to see him losing the day in
Court after Court after Court. She sued him for alimony in the
Court of Arches and won. He appealed to the Delegates and
again she won. She haled her husband before the King, and
she carried him up to the House of Lords. When he printed
his pamphlet: A True State of the Case between Sir Fohn Reade
and Dame Alissimon his wife, she ‘ conceived herself bound in
defence of her honour to Invalid such Libels,’ and printed a
broadsheet for all the world to see. With the ‘ corroboration
of sworn witnesses,’ she answers him point by point. The
‘songs’ he had accused her of making about him were ‘ only
some mournful complaints to God taken out of the Scripture
(as he—“‘ a right godly man,”’ so called—ought to have recognized)
and suitable to that afflicted condition in which he kept her.’
If she had ‘ compared his barbarous, inhuman actions towards
her to those of a churlish Nabal or tiger she had not been out of
the way; but she did never call him any of those names as he
alledged.’ It was not true that she had deserted him. On the
contrary she had ‘ often begged reconciliation with him, when
his unchristian answer was “‘ she might as well persuade him
to forsake Jesus Christ,’’ and again, ‘‘ he should think himself
damned if he did not forsake her.”’ He had boasted of the
integrity of his witnesses, but ‘ most of those names are persons
viii. He was nominated Sheriff in 1671, 1673, 1676 and 1677. The fine of
£500 imposed 1n 1673 was granted to trustees, ‘in trust for Dame Alissimon,
the wife of Sir John, whom he has refused to maintain.’ In 1676 a Colonel
Carter applied 1n advance ‘ for a grant of the fine that shall be imposed on him.’
32 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
he hath a great power over, and may be more than he should
over some of the females.’
Having disposed of his True State of the Case, she proceeds
to substantiate her own. Even in the early days of their marriage
he ‘ used to lay a charged pistol under his pillow in bed with
her in the night.’ Before long he had ‘ turned her out of doors,
sold her Household Stuff and deprived her of her jewells.’- Whilst
he slept sumptuously in the great chamber, he ‘ constrained her
to lodge in an out-room where corn and wool used to be kept,
made her wash her own clothes, and said he would keep only
such servants as would be offensive to her.’ To that end ‘he
bolstered up a dirty wench in the house against her lady and
animated her in gross affronts to her person.” He had denied
her admittance to his mansion house, or to any other of his
houses in Hertfordshire; and in answer to her entreaties he had
‘ threatened to bring her lower yet, that she should be his vassal
and prisoner and that all her good days with him were gone’
(483).
IV
We may leave this matrimonial cause, which only ended when
Death, the King of King’s Proctor, intervened, and notice two
ecclesiastical causes which soon afterwards affected Minsden
Chapel. In the first of these, dated 1700, Joseph Arnold of
Langley was sued by John Heath, as Chapel Warden of Minsden,
‘for violently taking and carrying away the chapell font.’ As
the font was useful to Arnold ‘as a sink in his dwellinghouse,’
and as he would neither return it nor pay the costs of the action,
he was ‘ cited and monished to appeare in the churche of Hitchin,
there to see and heare himselfe excommunicated ’ (484. 201).
A brief experience as an outcast, however, was sufficient to bring
him to his knees. The author possesses the original of the
absolution he afterwards received: ‘I absolve you from the
excommunication pronounced against you and restore you to
the Church in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost. Amen,’ In the second cause John Heath himself
was the party ‘ cited and monished.’ Since the long and bitter
struggle with St. Mary’s, he had not been the churchman he
once professed to be. Moreover, like many others in the hamlet,
he had a fellow-feeling for those poor Baptists and Independents
whom the Church had been hunting like foxes from place to
MINSDEN CHAPEL 33
place. They might not hold the views which he as chapel-
warden ought to hold, but they were men of God assuredly;
and some of them, like their Divine Master, had not where to lay
their heads. In 1701, therefore, when Daniel Skingle, a hedge-
preacher of this district (ix), asked if he might bring his little
flock of people into the shelter of Minsden Chapel, Heath saw
no harm in it. The chapel was hardly ever used, and it would
be like old times to have a sermon there again. With Heath’s
permission Skingle preached there weekly, and soon had not
only his own people to the number of 300, but the church people
of Minsden listening with both ears. ‘Those of them who were
wont to sleep in St. Mary’s under Vicar Bragge were astonished.
They had not heard it after this fashion before.
In the course of time a rumour reached Francis Bragge. For
years he had been trying to lay Skingle by the heels. ‘This man,
as he had heard his fellow magistrates declare at Quarter Sessions,
was a ‘ notorious Dissenter and utterly disaffected to the govern-
ment.’ Now was the chance to make an end of him, for,
“seduced by a Malignant Spiritt,’ he had ‘ infringed the liberties
of the Church and brought great Scandall to the Reformed
Religion.’ At first the Vicar’s efforts were unfruitful. No one
in Skingle’s congregation would betray him. The only result
was that the services were held more secretly than before. At
last, however, Bragge hit upon the ingenious plan of getting
one of his servants to call upon Skingle under the pretence that
he was under deep conviction of sin. By this method, ‘ drawing
Mr. Skingle into free discourse, the spy got out of him the
particulars of his preaching at the said chapel.’ Thereupon
Skingle was thrown into the Spiritual Court; where, after expend-
ing about £300 in a useless defence, he and Chapel-warden
Heath were glad enough to get clear by making the following
ix. Appointed Vicar of Essendon during the Commonwealth. Ejected in
1662. He subsequently attached himself to the Hertford Independent Church,
which ‘ approved his gift of prophesynge,’ and resolved that ‘ he be prayed for
and allowed of, with a promise of leavynge his callinge and giving himself
wholly to it.” But as time went on the members there grew less happy about
his conduct. They felt that the little bands of worshippers he had gathered
about himself at Braughing, Munden and Datchworth ought to be brought
into the fold and under the discipline of the Hertford church. ‘ All circum-
stances considered, we do not see that Mr. Skingles practis in admunistering
the ordinance to the few he hath at Braughing can be justified by Scripture;
and therefore we have no authority from Christ to give our Brethren leave to
join in that irregular practis.’ Ejected from the Hertford church, he formed
one of his own at Datchworth and continued as its pastor until his death.
VOL. II. Cc
34 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
submissions: ‘ I Daniel Skingle of the parish of Munden Magna
in the County of Hertford do acknowledge and confess to have
committed a great fault by taking upon me to preach contrary
to the law in the Chapel of Minsden, within the parish of Hitchin,
and do beg the right reverend father in God, James, Lord Bishop
of Lincoln, his pardon, and all others offended thereat; and do
promise that I will not committ or do the like for the future.
As witness my hand this 20th day of December, 1700’ (x). On
Sunday, November 23rd, John Heath was required to make this
abject apology in Hitchin Church: ‘ Whereas I, John Heath,
Chapel-warden of Minsden, a member of this church, have,
contrary to the duty and dignity of my office, which I was
sworn to observe and execute, permitted and suffered Daniel
Skingle, a mere layman and in a lay habit, to preach or rather
profane the holy Word of God in the Chapel of Minsden;
and did also invite and encourage him to the repetition of such
his illegal and unwarrantable practices, and have thereby violated
the solemn oath I took for the performance of my office, and have
given great offence to the church in general, and to this church,
and the minister and parishoners of this parish in particular;
I am therefore by the command of my Ordinary’s own letter
to make this acknowledgement, which I heartily and willingly
submit to, and do in the presence of Almighty God and this
congregation unfeignedly confess my said fault and the Great
Sin I have thereby committed against God, and the offence I
have given to the Church in general, and to this Church, and
minister and people in particular; and I beseech God and you
all to forgive me, and to join with me in prayer for the assistance
of His Holy Spirit that I may have a due regard to my duty for
the future.’ And then, repeating the Lord’s Prayer, he concluded
(484. 209-210; 492).
x. The account given by Richard Gough, the antiquary (1735-1809), 1n
a MS. note to a copy of Salmon’s History of Hertfordshire now 1n the Bodleian,
varies in some particulars: ‘ The poor man apprehending no 111 consequence
told him all honestly and freely. Mr. Bragge, notwithstanding the civility
of his expressions, put him soon after into a court where no civility was to be
expected. The unhappy man, being poor and not able to pay costs, was
detained in the vexatious suits of that court a long time. I think I have been
told to the time of his death. This I had from Mr. James of Hitchin, who
knew the whole affair ’ (489).
MINSDEN CHAPEL 35
V
The sermons of Skingle, the Independent, were the last
to be preached at Minsden Chapel; but for a time marriages
were still performed. ‘They are entered, not as before in the
Minsden Register, but in that of Hitchin. It 1s surprising to
see how numerous they grew. As the Chapel itself fell asunder
the people chose more and more to be joined together there in
holy matrimony. For a hundred years or so it had been con-
sidered fashionable, if not a little romantic, to walk out Chapel-
foot way and have a country wedding. ‘The best people had
done it. There in 1629 Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Edward
Radcliffe, had married John Ivory, a clerk in Holy Orders. There
in 1630 Thomas Kidner, another clerk in Holy Orders, after-
wards vicar of Hitchin, had married Grace Young, widow.
There in 1636 William Lindall, D.D., another vicar of Hitchin,
had married Elizabeth Peirce, his predecessor’s widow. But
it is from about 1690 that the fashion spread. By that time the
worst people did it. ‘'To this day,’ notes a writer of the period,
‘ people out of superstition or frolick are sometimes married in
these ruins.’ For fastidious people the chapel was becoming
almost too romantic, though one observes the marriage of Sir
John Barrington, baronet, to Susan Draper, daughter of the
Steward of Hitchin Manor, in 1697; and that of James Carter,
described as ‘ Attorney at law of Furnivall’s Inn,’ to Elizabeth
Lucas in 1703 (481). But many a bashful couple of the humbler
sort and many a shy widow were glad of this secluded churchlet
hidden in the wood, where the chief witnesses and the sole
choristers were the ringdoves crooning in those elms whose
boughs could be seen swaying to and fro through the yawning
holes in the roof. It was not until 1738 that the Bishop of
Lincoln refused to sanction any further marriages. It was
certainly time for him to intervene. At the last marriage of all—
that between Enoch West and Mary Horn on July 11th that
year—a piece of masonry fell and dashed the service book out of
the curate’s hand (53).
It has been remarked by a modern writer that ‘ this chapel
like King Charles II was an unconscionable time dying’
(67. 189); and, indeed, to those who love the place it is almost
painful to trace in successive histories the stages of its decline.
If it had been allowed to die in peace, the pity of it would have
30 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
been bearable. We should have shed no tears for a natural
dissolution. To sink down into this cool quietness of trees,
to be softly surrounded with glimmering phantasies of foliage,
branching forth and drooping into rest, to dream the last dreams
in this home of wild flowers, bright-hearted birds, and ‘ those
sweet-minded things which live where silence is ’"—this would
be not to die but to pass deliciously from peace to peace.
It has not been the good fortune of Minsden Chapel to have
an end so easy. Of Alice Perrers, the mistress of Edward ITI
and the lady of Hitchin Manor, it has been said that she stole
the rings from her royal lover’s fingers as he lay dying upon
his bed. That may or may not be true. But of the dying
Minsden it may be safely affirmed that those who should have
protected her have been the first to plunder the few treasures she
possessed. Her dissolution has been hastened by the sacrilegious
hands of her unnatural children. One reads of Jeremiah Godfrey
in 1690 ‘ unlawfully taking into his hands and possession four
hundred bras plumb1, anglice 400 pounds weight of lead, apper-
taining to the said chapel and that a hundredweight of the said
lead is of the value of 12 shillings of lawful money’ (182. 59).
One hears of others taking cart-loads of stone and sound oak
away for the repair and decoration of their cottages; with no
churchwarden at hand, like John Heath, to bring them to book.
One finds them aiding and abetting strangers to do the same.
‘There were formerly three bells belonging to this chapel,’
writes William Dunnage (28. 319); ‘ the removal of two of them
is handed to me in the following singular manner. As a person
of the name of John Reason of the parish of St. Paul’s Walden
was returning home from Hitchin Market about the year 1725,
he was very much alarmed when he arrived in the vicinity of
Hitch Wood by a great noise of men behind him, having with
them horses and a carriage. From the lumbering noise that
was occasioned by their going very fast, he conjectured they had
removed the bells from the steeple of the chapel. When he
left them they proceeded in the direction of Harpenden. What
confirmed him in the opinion of the above circumstance was that
the bells were soon after missed from the steeple. What became
of the third bell is not known’ (xi). This report ‘ handed ’
xi. S. B. Chittenden of Horsham writes: ‘ The late Mr. Cook, senior, of
Little Almshoe, told me forty years ago that one of his barns went by the name
of Beli-barn in consequence of the stolen bell finding a resting-place in 1t for a
night previous to 1ts final removal ’ (Letter to the Herts Express, July 29, 1918).
MINSDEN CHAPEL 37
to Dunnage finds some corroboration in the contemporary
manuscript History of Hitchin by Isaac James, who says: ‘I
heard my mother say that the thieves turned the shoes of the
horses on their return from the Chapel that their course might not
be traced ’ (21. 243).
OLD BOWSTOCK
In 1814 Dunnage made this careful ‘ admeasurement’ of
the ruins :-—
ft. ins.
‘ Thickness of the wall of the Tower west end 2 6
The Tower—square inside 18 -
Wall between Belfry & Chapel 2 6
Chapel from Belfry to nave (width 21 feet) 38 _
Wall between nave and Chancel 2 -
Chancel from Nave to East Window (width 15 feet) 25 —
Thickness of wall at East end 2 -
Total length 90 feet ’
‘The nave columns and arch,’ he continues, ‘ still remain and
parts of the wall right and left; also the dimensions (sic) of the
East window and one of the side windows and doorway on the
south-west side. On the north side of the Chapel near the
Nave is the only vestige of Antiquity remaining; it consists of a
niche in the wall, at the bottom of which is cut a figure in stone.’
It was a pity he drew attention to it; before a year was out this
* last vestige ’ had gone the way of the rest (28. 317).
Sometimes the robbers or receivers had the effrontery to
38 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
sell these stolen goods by auction. ‘Some fine specimens of
painted glass,’ writes William Lucas in his diary under 1832,
‘ are now exhibiting in the great room at the Sun, and are offered
on liberal terms to this parish to be put up in the church, if
they have spirit enough to buy them ’ (24). Some of the glass was
recognized as having come from Minsden; but no one seemed
to care, and no one had the money or the benevolence to buy.
With just the same effrontery and immunity old Bowstock,
who wore a squashed chimney-pot hat and was anything you
might ask him to be, used in the eighteen-forties to take his
donkey-cart to Minsden, dislodge and bring away a load of
worked clunch, and sell it in Hitchin Market right under the
vicar’s nose. What little he left of the tracery work of the windows
was said to have been appropriated by the people of St. Ippolyts,
who were restoring their church (1840) and wished to have an
east window exactly like that at Minsden. ‘To be the more exact,
they took the materials as well as the design (xii) (493).
VI
For many a year now Minsden has been left in peace. Falling
amongst thieves, stripped of its raiment, lying by the wayside
half-dead—St. Mary’s Wardens, those proud Levites, passing
by on the other side—there is nothing for the chapel but to die.
Here, as with the neighbouring church of Chesfield, which was
abandoned by order of the Church at the same period, 1750,
the ravages of time have almost completed the destruction.
The whole is overgrown with ivy, giving it a picturesque and
wild effect. Enshrouding the remains is a dense mass of dis-
hevelled undergrowth, and encompassing that again, as it were
an outer coffin, is a belt of time-worn and decaying elms, some
of them uprooted by the storms and still lying where they fell (xiii).
There is about it all a strangely wistful air of desolation.
xii. May I interpolate here that the ruined chapel now belongs to me; for
my life, at least. I have these many years past leased it from the vicars of
Hitchin. Let trespassers and sacrilegious persons take warning, for I will
proceed against them with the utmost rigour of the law. Furthermore, if, as
is possible, I am buried there, I will endeavour in all ghostly ways to protect
and haunt its hallowed walls.
xui. This chapter was written in 1926. Most of the fallen and half-fallen
trees were removed in 1927; and the undergrowth, then fifteen feet high and
completely obscuring the ruins, was cleared away.
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MINSDEN CHAPEL 39
*‘ *Tis now the raven’s bleak abode;
*T'1s now th’ apartment of the toad;
And there the fox securely feeds;
And there the poisonous adder breeds,
Conceal’d in ruins, moss and weeds;
While, ever and anon, there falls
Huge heaps of hoary mouldered walls ” (xiv).
These are the Lords of Minsden now. These are the present
wardens of the Chapel. Once or twice a year, perhaps, the
dominion of silence will be broken by a sudden tumult of wings.
Some noisy son of Adam will come forcing his way into this
sanctuary and look with astonishment aboyt him. But the
perpetual twilight of this mournful place makes him uneasy.
He feels a hundred eyes upon him. The very silence is hostile.
Minsden is not for him. On All Hallows Eve a few years ago
a number of earnest people visited the ruins at midnight to see
if haply they could surprise the Minsden ghost, the cowled
apparition whose form can be faintly discerned in the photograph
that fronts this page. Unhappily it was they who were sur-
prised by an equally earnest custodian of the law, who would
not be denied in his suspicion that they were ‘ night walkers ”
or such as should be searched under the Poaching Prevention Act
of 1874. It was an ignominious end to a grave and scientific
expedition (xv).
Minsden is not for these. It is for those, rather, whose minds
are in ruins; for those sons of quietness who are distracted by
the crimes and follies and misfortunes of mankind. In its deep
shade many have found healing (xvi) and consolation and repose.
‘ They are one with the twilight’s dream’ :—
xiv. From Grongar Hill, by John Dyer, published 1n 1727.
xv. ‘I visited the ruined chapel three times,’ writes Elliott O’Donnell to
me. ‘ On the first occasion I was accompanied by several other people. One
of the party was a professional medium, but she met with no success. On our
way back we were stopped by the police. My second visit was alone, and I did
feel extraordinarily uncanny at times. I was conscious of something close
beside me, scrutinizing me, although I neither saw nor heard anything. On the
third occasion, also on an All Hallows Eve, I was again with friends, and some
excitement was caused by lights, presumably magnesium, being set off under
our noses. Also we found a sheet in a bush, so concluded that someone was
trying to play us a foolish practical joke. . . . On the whole I am inclined
to think there is truth in the legend of the Minsden ghost.”
xvi. I know four quite ordinary people who carry flints from Minsden
Chapel about with them wherever they go. One of them ascribed her recovery
from a serious 1liness entirely to the healing power of the talisman beside
her bed.
40° THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
‘ For here the ancient Mother lingers
To dip her hands in the diamond dew,
And lave thine ache with cloud-cool fingers
Till sorrow die from you.’
Perhaps more than any other it is the sons of Apollo who
come to muse on Minsden Hill. ‘There has been a goodly, if
not a glorious, company of them to praise this ruined Parnassus;
for, maltsters, fellmongers, farmers and shopkeepers though we
be, we also have had our poets and we have them still (xvii).
It is here if anywhere that their tongues have been unloosed
and they have learned to sing; singing, indeed, with such elegiac
profusion that by now the last note of sentiment has been drawn
out. If the author may judge from the forty poems on Minsden
in his collection, it is a place propitious for poetry. It is not only
that
*‘ No noise is here or none that hinders thought ’;
the very air at Minsden is tremulous with that faint susurrus—
call it the undersong of earth, the music of the spheres, the sigh
of departed time, or what you will—which only the more finely
attuned spirits overhear :—
*‘ Stillness accompanied with sound so soft
Charms more than silence. Meditation here
May think down hours to moments.’
For those who have had ears to hear it has been enough to
hearken to the ruinated windows and riddled walls as they
‘murmur to the breeze’s call
The night wind’s lovely vesper hymn.’
Listening to such music, they, too, have lisped in numbers, for
the numbers came :-—
‘ The far soft syllabing of things forgot
Long, long ago, that sing how simply in the sleep of thought.’
Forty moralizing poems on Minsden ruins would surfeit any
reader. But as an example we will print some lines composed
xvii. The author has in preparation an Anthology of Hetchin Verse selected
from the works of fifty local poets.
MINSDEN CHAPEL 41
about 1750 by one Wallis, an usher of the school founded at
Hitchin by the Rev. Edward Hickman :—
ON THE RUINS OF MINSDEN OR MINZELL CHAPEL’
The rising sun had chased the shades of night
And each obscuring mist had fled the light,
The cooling zephyrs gently as they passed
Stirred every leaf and bent the tender grass.
Perfuming odours rose, the warblers sung,
And with their music all the valleys rung.
Charmed with the pleasing prospect of the fields,
To taste the pleasure which their beauty yields,
To breathe the sweetness of the morning air
I leave the town and to the plain repair.
A mouldering structure then appeared in view,
Around whose top the creeping ivy grew,
Once a fair church adorned with curious art,
In crumbling stone now dropping part from part;
While thorns and brniars, interwoven round,
Vie with its top, and fill the desert ground,
Denying entrance to the curious eye,
To view the graves that underneath them lie.
While thus my thoughts with meditation glow,
And thus my words in mournful accents flow :—
‘Is this the place where numerous footsteps trod,
Where living votaries filled the House of God;
Where the full chorus of the sounding choir
Bid one loud strain of prayer and praise aspire?’
How silent now the desolated spot,
Its paths untrodden and its use forgot.
Of noxious reptiles now the haunted scene,
Hung with cold dews, and clad with baleful green
All day the redbreast mournful ditty sings;
With mournful ditties, plaintive echo rings;
And birds (xvi) ill-omened at the day’s decline
With boding sounds profane the hallowed shrine;
While mournful shadows stretched along the plains
Move with the wind and scare benighted swains.
Just such is man, when vig’rous youth is fled,
And feeble age has silvered o’er his head ;
Downward he sinks, deserted and forlorn,
Of all he meets the pity and the scorn;
xviu. When Wallis’s lines first came to be printed, the long-suffering
compositor substituted ‘ bards ’ for birds. I suspect 1t was done deliberately.
It was too good a chance to miss. When Tennyson remarked, apropos of
smoking, that the first pipe in the morning was the best, Sir William Harcourt,
slyly misquoting one of the poet’s well-known lines, was heard to say, ‘ the
earliest pipe of half-awakened bard.’
42 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
None haunt his dwelling save the reptile race,
Who hope his fortune or expect his place;
Yet shall he rise and mount the realms of day,
Where youth immortal shall no more decay (488).
That little community of farming folk we read of in Domesday:
the serfs, the villeins, the cottars, all so busily at work upon their
plough-lands, their pastures, and their cattle, is now another
world away. Only a few yellowing parchments keep their
memory alive. No reeve comes nowadays to measure out the
works on the demesne; no steward holds his court of Minsden-
bury; no jurors present encroachments on the common. Where
is Minsden common now? And where is the manor house?
And what has become of all those copyhold crofts and tofts and
tenements that clustered round Minsden Hill?
For the historian there is nothing more to say. It is for the
poets to take up the tale. And even they can do little more in
their dirge-like way than chant that word ‘ mournful’ which
Wallis tolls no less than four times in his forty lines, as if he would
have us hear the chapel of St. Nicholas of Minsden ringing its
own knell. It is only a man of the old faith and a master in the
craft of words—one such as Lionel Johnson—who can by the
sole enchantment of his verse rebuild these downcast walls,
set up once more the ancient timbered roof, and make us see the
hovering host of angels in fair carven figures, with sackbut and
psaltery and all kinds of music praising the Holiest in the height.
Under such a poet’s spell the pestilent ivy, the hurtful nettle, the
congregation of elders disappear. Allis swept and garnished as
of old. By miracle or magic the long-lost windows start into
their place. The light that pours with so subdued a splendour
through their painted glass gleams on the ‘ crosse of copper with
its cloth of sarcenet,’ wakens to life the brasses of Dauntesey
and Langford, and rests almost tenderly upon the effigy of Dame
Margerie Astrye where she sleeps so straight and still within her
private chapel. One hears, or seems to hear, a drift of sacred
music from the choir; and clouds of frankincense come sweeping
down the nave. In the half-glow of the altar lights one sees or
seems to see the ghostly figure of a priest with eyes uplifted
as in adoration and with supplicating hands outspread. ‘The
holy words he utters hush themselves, as if in awe, before a
mystery too deep for words. Suddenly the ‘litel bell,’ the
sanctus bell, of Minsden rings. ‘There is a sound as of many
MINSDEN CHAPEL 43
worshippers falling to their knees. Once again in Minsden
Chapel the solemn Eucharist is said.
‘ Sadly the dead leaves rustle in the whistling wind,
Around the weather-worn gray church, low down the vale;
The Saints in golden vesture shake before the gale;
The glorious windows shake, where still they dwell enshrined ;
Old Saints by long-dead shrivelled hands long since designed;
There still, although the world autumnal be, and pale,
Still in their golden vesture the old saints prevail;
Alone with Christ, desolate else, left by mankind.
Only one ancient Priest offers the Sacrifice,
Murmuring holy Latin rmmemorial:
Swaying with tremulous hands the old censer full of spice,
In gray, sweet incense clouds; blue, sweet clouds mystical:
To him, in place of men, for he is old, suffice
Melancholy remembrances and vesperal.’
THE LOST BELLS
THE BAPTISTS (i)
Witn a Notre UPON THOSE WHO WENT BEFORE THEM TO PREPARE
THE WAY.
I
F one were asked to say who were the
de * prime movers of Nonconformity in this
: }
[C
7 parish, the answer, however unexpected,
ZEGIN| would have to be Ralph Radcliffe, school-
Meet] master, playwright and squire of Hitchin
Priory, 1519-1559, and Richard Chambers,
vicar of St. Mary’s from 1570-1593.
In the times before them there had been
Lollards in plenty in these parts. Peter
| Stokes, whom Wyclif nicknamed ‘the
little white dog,’ had barked at them from his kennel in the
Carmelite convent here, barked at them vigorously in sermons and
in books (supra, Vol. 1, pp. 135-137). But their heresies had been
hunted out, or rather burnt out, long before the Reformation. In
this neighbourhood, at least, not a trace of their dissidence survived.
Following them, as one may see from the Bishop’s visitations of
the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, there were plenty of
sober-minded people within the fold of the Church who were
thinking hard and beginning to murmur about the lives of the
clergy, and ‘ those which under a certain feigned colour of sanctitie
come to you in the clothes of the schepe, and inwardly they be
ravening wolves ” (269. 22). But such was the habit of obedience
to those in ecclesiastical authority that no one opened his mouth
against these growing abuses. Not even in the ferment of the
Reformation is there a solitary voice to be heard.
In 1543, however, at the instigation of his patron, Henry VIII,
there came to Hitchin Priory one Ralph Radcliffe, who in the
University of Cambridge had been speaking out to some purpose.
It was a way he had. His writings show him to have been a man
of decided opinions, and one who, being himself heart and soul
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THE BAPTISTS 45
for the Reformation, had resolved to help on the good work by
exposing the sloth and deadness of the clergy. In the morality
plays which he wrote for his boys to perform each year before a
mixed audience of courtiers from London, dons from Cambridge,
and parents and all sorts and conditions of people from Hitchin,
there is no mincing of words (269). ‘The pageant of sacerdotalism
and superstition, tricked out in due liturgical array, moves
sumptuously across the stage. ‘The poor Church, clad in plain
homespun, is dazzled and deceived by the proud bearing and
the glozing speech of these ‘ hypocrytes in high places.’ But
the Fool sees them as they really are, and out of his mouth, by a
device which was to prove so useful to dramatists in later days,
proceed those stinging truths which the playwright himself
would not have dared to utter: ‘ As for curates and vycares,
what thyng should they preache? ‘They be almost unknowing
theire letters and starke foolys. I have often times seen olde
women better lernyd ’ (269. 4).
In another scene he breaks out upon their ‘ pride of life,’
their greed and covetousness: ‘ As touching the charge of ther
flocke and of ther soolys [1.e. souls], they care no more than they
do for frogges in the fen; it is enough so that they have sheryd
ther woolle and have shaven them to the skynne’ (269. 6). He
draws a lively picture of them no longer ‘ feeding their lambs,’
but fleecing them for the uttermost farthing of their tithes. He
scorns them for spending in riotous living the substance they
have frightened out of the faithful; and grudging even a moment
for the instruction of Christian folk in the Paternoster, the Ave
Maria, the Catechism and the Creed. And then, proceeding
with his catalogue of priestly crime, he declaims at full voice
what the others were only whispering to those whom they could
trust: ‘ There be manye,’ he asserts, ‘ which kepe the familyes
of their nevewes, for so they are wont to call their sonnes. They
that live in matrimonye can take no hede to ther wyfes for them
. others be dronken and wallowe in ther pleasures daye and
nyght . . . you shall fynde many with a fatte belye, with a face
fuil of carbunkelles and saffyres, wyth a nos. set with perle,
wyth red eyes and a stomake stretched abrode ’ (269. 8).
Tt would be more than uncharitable—it would be manifestly
wrong—to assume that the clergy were habitually or even frequently
as lax as those here satirized ; but the Fool could have cited plenty
of ecclesiastical censure for his purpose. ‘To the wise man who
46 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
created him the outlook for religion seemed dark indeed. Radcliffe
says deliberately in the conclusion of his play: ‘ Except there be
founde a remedye quyckly for so great a plage [i.e. plague], the
matter is dasshed of Christian pytie, the dye is caste of the
savegarde of soolys ’ (269. 10).
II
With even greater courage, and possibly not less dramatic
effect, the Protestant (one might almost say Puritan) (ii) cause
was being maintained in the parish church. For in 1546, when
the Bishop was complaining that only one sermon had been
preached in St. Mary’s in the space of six months (iia), Nicholas
Dyer, one of the assistant priests, undertook a course of sermons
which must have made the Bishop sorry he had spoken. From
the proceedings against him it is clear that Dyer had set his mind
steadfastly against the Mariolatry and Image-worship which had
been growing up for more than a century, and to such a degree
that devout men felt that they could no longer pray to the Son
of God for the intervening presence of His Mother and a whole
multitude of saints. ‘’To the grave peril of your soul and to
the evil example of others,’ says the Bishop, ‘ you have not done
or fulfilled that which every curate is bound and constrained of
right and by laudable custom long used and observed to do,
namely, to announce and declare to his parishioners every Lord’s
Day the days of fasts and vigils of the Blessed Mary and all the
Saints pertaining to that week ’ (497).
The Bishop was at one time hopeful that it was ‘ carelessness,
negligence or ignorance ’ only which had made Dyer thus remiss ;
but he was quickly undeceived. ‘ ‘To the great scandal of the
parishoners there,’ Dyer had the audacity to declare in St. Mary’s
pulpit, ‘that ther be more Idolles in the towne than Christen
men ’; and on another occasion he said, ‘ Itt is nott mencyoned
in the scripture that anye man is bounde to faste ’; and, further-
u. The N.E.D. gives 1567 for the earliest use of the word: ‘ About that
tyme were many congregations of the Ana-baptists in London who cawlyd
themselves Puritans or Unspottyd Lambs of the Lord.’—-Stow’s Chronicle.
iia, A similar complaint had been made 1n 1536, and, as I think, rather un-
fairly. At any rate, Henry Malet, who was an assistant priest at St. Mary’s,
writes that very year: ‘ My only comfort 1s to preach every holy-day here in
Hitchen and hereabouts, and so do the Lord some service’ (L. & P., Hen. VIII,
vol. xi. 596).
THE BAPTISTS 47
more and finally, he did ‘ openly and publicly assert and preach
these words, “‘that holye breade and holye water kannot be founde
fi.e. in Scripture] and that it doth nott proffite anye man ”’’ (497.
72-3). For these offences, and for bringing ‘ several illicit
preachers to preach’ false doctrine, insomuch that ‘ the public
voice and report have been busy and still are busy with them in
the parish of Hichyn and other neighbouring and surrounding
places,’ Nicholas Dyer was excommunicated and cast out, ‘ until
such time as he shall return to the bosom of Holy Mother Church’
(497- 774-78).
Though Dyer was silenced by his Bishop and Radcliffe was
silenced by death (i11), the words which they had uttered were
not allowed to die. Another vicar of Hitchin was soon to rise
up and carry on their work. Richard Chambers, who was
appointed to the living in 1570, was the son of that Richard
Chambers who had done so much for the English Protestants
exiled at Frankfort in Mary’s reign (iv), and had himself been a
pupil of Thomas Cartwright, the Champion of English Puritanism
(v), ‘than whom,’ wrote Beza, ‘I think the sun does not see
a more learned man’ (559. 800-8). By 1573 the new vicar
was already in trouble with his bishop (498). He is described
as “not conformable,’ and, when called upon as a suspected
person, would acknowledge neither the thirty-nine Articles nor
the Prayer-book as revised (559. 634). It is of him and three
other ‘ recusants’ that the Bishop complains to his archdeacon
in 1583, as men who endeavour to alienate Her Majesty’s subjects
* to the liking and following of sondrie Phantasticall Inventiones of
their owne’ (79. 4. 330). He will not obey the Injunctions
about vestments, and is discovered collecting money for the
relief of the Protestants in Geneva, ‘ those godlie people trobled
u1. Aged only forty,1n 1559. Amongst his morality plays there 1s a touching
dialogue, done 1n the style of Everyman, between ‘ Deth ’ and ‘ The Goer by the
Waye,’ in which one seems to hear the cry of the dying playwright himself
(269. 76) :—
GoER BY THE WayYE. Do you kyll wyse men?
Deru. Solomon 1s dead.
Gorr BY THE WaYE. Wyll you kyll with your hatchet me a young man?
Dern. I kyll the younge with the olde.’
iv. Before going into exile he had for a time lived in Hitchin in a house
which, 1t 1s interesting to see, he purchased from Ralph Radclifie.
v. ‘ A native of Hertfordshire,’ says the D.N.B., but Urwick in his Noncon-
fornuty wn Herts, pp. 800-803, has proved conclusively that he was born at
Royston, twelve miles distant from Hitchin. Between the Dissenting churches
of these two towns there has always been the closest communion.
48 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
for the gospel of Jesus Christ ’ (vi). At last, in 1592, the Bishop
plucked Chambers from his benefice at Hitchin, but he was to
remain a thorn in the episcopal flesh. Putting himself at the
head of the Puritan clergy of the archdeaconry, he gave his
superior no peace. He ‘trobled’ him without ceasing. As
late as 1604 one sees him deputed with two more of the Hertford-
shire clergy to beard the Bishop in his den at Buckden, and protest
against the Canons issued in that year, some of which condemned
the ‘ wicked errors ’ of Puritan Schismatics in plain, unmeasured
terms (79. 4. 332). From the Bishop, as might have been expected,
they got no satisfaction. They must either read the Canons
in their churches, he said, or be deprived. They then appealed
to the King, and drew a pathetic picture of the way in which they
were continually being tossed to and fro between the Bishop
and the Archdeacon and the Commissary and the Registrar,
all of whom were bent upon their ruin. In order to be rid of
them James tossed them back to their Bishop again, and suggested
that they should hold another conference with him at Huntingdon;
but the proposal came to nothing because Chambers insisted
that it should be an open conference and that the proceedings
should be published, to neither of which would the Bishop agree
(79. 4. 332).
III
It was a time of great ferment, for Puritanism was then in
its birth-throes. It had been hoped so ardently that the new
King would prove the defender of the new faith. Many of the
clergy round about Hitchin, ‘ groaning under a common burden
of rites and ceremonies,’ had signed the Millenary Petition
presented to James on his way to London (April 4, 1604). Asking
in particular that they should not be ‘ excommunicated as hereto-
fore for trifles and twelve-penny matters,’ they point out that they
are all ‘ Ministers of the Gospell and desire not a disorderly
innovation but a due and godly reformation ’ (79. 4. 332). In
the following winter (November 6, 1604) they actually waylaid
him whilst hunting in the neighbourhood of Royston, and pre-
sented this further petition: ‘ Most gracious and undoubted
sovereign, in most humble wise we your loyal subjects of the
vi. There was a royal brief issued for this in 1583. But the Bishop of
Lincoln gave no blessing to 1t, and those priests who preached for 1t were
privately marked down as disaffected.
THE BAPTISTS 49
parishes near adjacent do most earnestly upon our knees beseech
and intreat your most excellent Majesty. ‘That whereas in the
days of our late deceased sovereign of happy memory, and until
this time also under your Highness’ most blessed government,
we have enjoyed the great benefit of faithful Pastors, through
whose ministry we have been taught, and brought from darkness
into light, and from the power of Satan unto God; by whose
doctrine and example also we have been taught and trained up,
as to give to God the things that are God’s, so in like sort to give
unto Caesar that which unto him belongeth. But now (dear
Sovereign) those worthy lights are in part extinguished, and we
gravely threatened to be deprived of the remnant that are left,
unless your sacred Majesty, who only is our hope of help upon
earth, do, out of the bowels of your compassion to the souls of
us and our posterity, stretch out your royal authority for our
relief; not suffering us to be committed unto idle shepherds
that cannot feed us, or careless shepherds who aim only at the
gain of the fleece and neglect the safety of the flock. If but
the loss (dear Sovereign) extended but to our bodies and goods,
we would with silence and cheerfulness prostrate them at your
Majesty’s feet to do you service; but, alas! through the want of
them (i.e. the pastors) the souls of us and our posterity are exposed
to certain and inevitable ruin, according to the saying of Solomon,
*‘ when vision faileth then the people perish.’”? Hearken, there-
fore (most gracious Sovereign), to the hearty cries of us your
humble suppliants, that, as we have praised God for your peaceable
and happy entrance into this kingdom, so we may be further
bound to pray to Him for the continuance of your excellent
Majesty and your royal issue to reign over us till the appearing
of Christ Jesus ’ (499).
For their ‘ disorderly interference ’ with His Majesty’s divine
right of hunting, ten of the eight-and-twenty Puritans who pre-
sented this petition were haled before the Council. The rest
received their answer from their ‘ only hope on earth’ at the
Conference called at Hampton Court: ‘ I shall make them conform
themselves, or I will harry them out of the land, or else do
worse.’
It is from this time forward that one observes a change in
the temper of these ‘ humble suppliants.”, They were not minded
to be harried out of the land or conformed against their will.
If the King chose to harden his heart, they could harden theirs
VOL. II. D
5° THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
also. Pains and penalties notwithstanding, the numbers steadily
increase of such as ‘ absent themselves from the parochial way
of worship.’
With those ‘worthy lights,’ their deprived pastors, they
withdraw themselves more and more for ‘ prophesyings’ in
dark and secret places. From godly men disguised as Lecturers
they listen to sermons which their ‘ idle shepherds ’ had not the
learning to preach. But this was not for long. In 1615 Laud
was appointed to the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, in which
at that time Hitchin lay; and all men said it was his malign
influence which led the King, in 1622, to issue the declaration
‘ concerning preachers,’ whereby ‘ no preacher under the degree
of a Bishop or Dean shall from henceforth presume to preach
in any popular auditory the deep points of Predestination, Elec-
tion, Reprobation, or the Universality, Efficacy, Resistability, or
Irresistability of God’s Grace, but leave those themes to be
handled by learned men ’ (74. 4.334). That meant the extinguish-
ment of the ‘ worthy lights ’ and the suppression of Lecturers.
It was no use to petition any more. ‘The King was adamant.
Besides, the memory was still fresh in men’s minds of the awful
fate of Edward Wightman, the Anabaptist, who had presented
a petition to His Majesty—again at Royston—in 1611. For his
opinions, too courageously declared, he had been burned at the
stake—the last person to be burned for heresy in England. And
‘ Laud,’ says Neile, who condemned him, ‘was with me and
assisted me in all the proceedings from the beginning to the
end ’ (567. 112).
IV
Not being disposed to suffer martyrdom, or even bonds,
for Laud’s sake, the Hitchin Puritans either conformed or met
in such secluded places that not even Laud’s inquisitorial eyes
could spy them out. For nearly fifteen years they lay so close
that not one of them was caught. It was only after the Petition of
Right, when the Commons and the common people were beginning
to match their strength against the Crown, that they ventured to
come out of their holes and hiding-places. At the Archdeacon’s
Court at Hitchin, on May 24, 1632, Richard Hodges of Tilehouse
Street went so far as to say, ‘ This Court is called a Spiritual
Court, but it is a Court of no conscience ’ (559. 635). In the
year following the judge was horrified to learn that one of his
QQOgI ‘LATULs ASIOHAIIL dn MAA V
THE BAPTISTS 51
own officials had become infected with Puritanical notions:
* 1635, April 29th, at Hitchin, the judge caused John Peters to
be called in open court, and he not appearing, the Judge, for
divers reasons him specially moving, did suspend the said Peters
from his office of Apparitor and decreed that he should not
hereafter be restored to it again ’ (559. 635). On May 11, 1635,
Thomas Parsons of Hitchin was fined ‘ for not paying 18d. to
the repair of the church.’ About the same time it was found
necessary to command that the Book of Orders and Ceremonies
should be observed at Hitchin, for ‘ some did not stand up at the
Creed, nor bow to the altar, nor at the name of Jesus, nor receive
the Sacrament upon their knees ’ (vii). Also ‘the Church and
Church yard are quite out of order,’ and the services are occasion-
ally taken by ‘Mr. Wood, an unlearned man and no graduate,
but rather a weaver who was formerly questioned in the high
Commission court and his orders were taken from him, but he
hath gotten them again God knoweth how ’” (501).
To get Mr. Wood discredited in the eyes of his people a plot
was concocted between one Richard Hunt, a Fellow of Emmanuel
College, Cambridge, and Jacob Twistleton, curate of Minsden
Chapel. It was agreed that Hunt should ‘ contrive ’ a seemingly
innocent letter containing aspersions on Wood, and have it
* directed ’ to William Burwell, a confederate, who ‘is a carrier
of maulte from Hitchin to London.’ Then Burwell was ‘ to
divulge, disperse, cast and deliver abroad the said Lybell to
diverse and sundry his Majestie’s subjects.” Amongst other
charges and innuendoes it was alleged that so far from Wood
having studied, as he said, for nine years at Dublin University,
he had not been near that city; that so far from his having sprung
from a good family in Lancashire he was a ‘mere mechanicall
person,’ and had been ‘ a weaver and seller of fustians ’; that he
was ‘ one of the familists,’ a man of evil life and conversation, and
no fit man to be a minister in the Church of God; that he ‘ did
usuallie resorte and walke into woods and pastures farre remote
from any Towne, and was followed into those solitary places by
many hundreds of the inhabitants of Hitchin both men and
women ’; that it was pitiful ‘to see the people so misled and
vu. This refusal to kneel at the Sacrament was an old-standing offence.
As far back as 1591 the Bishop had ordered Richard Chambers ‘ to confer with
those at Hitchin that stande excommunicate to see 1f he can wynne them by
exhortation to receive the Communion kneeling’ (182. 73).
52 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
seduced ’ by a man ‘ who knew his calling no more than his
horse did,’ and yet had the ‘ impudence and arrogancy to say
that the learned interpreters of the Church [i.e. the translators
of the Authorized Version of 1611] had translated other wayes
than the originall.’
By invoking the aid of Ralph Radcliffe, Wood was able to
beard these lions in their den, seize some incriminating papers,
and hale them before the Star Chamber, where he established
his ‘ unspotted reputation ’ as a Lecturer and discomfited all his
enemies (Star Chamber Proceedings, James I, 299, 13).
In the chapter on the Civil War (Vol. I, pp. 176-223) has
been told the story of those Hitchin Puritans who, seven years
later, took up arms in defence of the liberty of religious dissent.
We need not go over those battlefields again. Here we are con-
cerned only to point out the emergence of definite Baptist views
from that army of zealots whom the ungodly chose to slander
as ‘hypocrites, dissemblers, holy-brethren, sermon-goers, pul-
pitarians, and Puritans.’ Undoubtedly the first and foremost of
the Hitchin Baptists was Henry Denne [for whom see Vol. I,
p. 184], one of those fifteen Orthodox Divines whom Parliament
appuinted in 1642 to lecture at St. Mary’s. This ardent spirit—
whom Desborough, no mean judge, accounted ‘ the ablest man
in the kingdom for prayers, expounding and preaching ’—startled
and scandalized his orthodox brethren at the outset, 1641, by
repeating here in deadlier form an attack on infant baptism
which had been prepared the previous year for the Bishop’s
visitation. It was 1n itself, he said, ‘the quintessence of ten
years’sermons.’ ‘Though ‘contradicted by many of the auditors,’
this preachment on The Doctrine and Conversation of John
Baptist (345) made a profound impression; and when Denne
followed the logic of his argument by resigning his lectureship
and by professing himself openly as a Baptist and by being ‘ dipt,’
he led away with him many whom his eloquence and reasoning
had won. The Orthodox Divines got Rotheram of Ickleford
to write a counterblast, 4 Den of Thieves discovered, or certain
errors and false doctrines delivered in a sermon by Henry Denne
confuted, 1643; and Samuel Chidley, for whom see above, vol.i,
pp. 212-220, rushed into print on his own account with A
Christian Plea for Christians Baptisme, in which the lawfulnesse
of Infants Baptisme is defended by sufficient grounds and reasons
drawn from the sweet fountains of holy Scripture, 1644. But
THE BAPTISTS 53
Denne could quote Scripture for his purpose just as well as they,
and when it came to a trial, could do it in Hebrew and Latin
and Greek. After the church doors were closed against him, he
preached on in the churchyards, and when driven from there
he preached on in farm-houses and barns and on many a village
green. Or rather, following his custom, he disputed. ‘That partly
accounts for the respect which was shown to him, especially by
his opponents. He gave every auditor his due. As soon as
his sermon was ended he would invite those who were not
satisfied to come forward; and then ‘they stand up that will
object and then he answers.’ This fervour of disputation pos-
sessed him all his days. When they cast him into prison in
1644 for baptizing some adults he set about converting his fellow
prisoners. It was a particular joy to find among them Dr. Daniel
Featley, the author of that provocative pamphlet, The Dippers
Dipt, or the Anabaptists duck’d and plunged over head and eares
at a disputation in Southwark, 1645. As Denne failed to convince
Featley in gaol, he challenged him to a public disputation as
soon as they were released. His account of this, The Foundation
of Children’s Baptism discovered and rased: an answer to Dr.
Featley, 1645, was for many years a standard authority among
the Baptists. Featley, who had been discomfited in the debate,
refused to publish his side of it and died soon after.
In the same way, when Denne joined the new Model Army
in 1646 (it was the alternative to gaol), he won many a battle
for the Baptist cause. Cromwell’s Army was one vast con-
gregation of Old Testament zealots (viii), a seething mass of
speculative opinions, a very paradise for a preacher. Amongst
the soldiers there was a leaning towards the Baptists, for
the most popular drill-books in use for the cavalry and
infantry were written by men of that persuasion, and the
Baptist chaplains knew how to fight as well as pray. When
the Hitchin Trained-Bands men were in garrison at Newport
Pagnell they had for chaplain a man after Denne’s heart,
a Captain Paul Hobson, author of The Fallacy of Infants
Baptisme discovered, 1646. On one occasion he preached to
such effect that a riot was caused in the town and martial law
vii. ‘ Cromwell,’ says Cleveland, ‘ hath beat up his drums clean through
the Old Testament—you may know the genealogy of our Saviour by the names
of his regiment. The muster master hath no other list than the first chapter
of St. Matthew.’
54 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
had to be proclaimed (ix). Lest this latter-day Paul should
‘exceedingly trouble the city’ and cause another uproar, the
governor, Sir Samuel Luke, who was a Presbyterian, thought
it wiser to plunge him into prison.
The aristocratic pen of History has not thought it necessary
to study the opinions of the common soldier or the contemptible
Baptist; they have been allowed to perish unobserved. But we
do know that about this time, and perhaps as a result of Hobson’s
preaching and Denne’s disputations, some leading Hitchin men
professed the Baptist faith. That gallant officer Col. Sadleir,
Lord of Temple Dinsley and a member of the Hertfordshire
Committee of War, was one. In after years, when he became
Cromwell’s Adjutant-General in Ireland and Governor of Galway,
he was complained of by the clergymen there, because he would
not allow them to baptize otherwise than by immersion. Another
was Sir John Read, Lord of the Manor of Minsden, who was
the representative of Hitchin on the grand committee of the
Eastern Association. ‘These two notables were Baptists open and
professed, but many another might be discovered amongst those
Hitchin men who signed the Petition or Remonstrance of
February 4, 1648-9 (see Vol. I, page 208), for it has one clause
which is copied direct from the General Baptist Confession of
that day: ‘ No civil power in the world can meddle with Religion,
but they must intrench upon the Prerogative Royal of Jesus
Christ.’
As yet it was a matter of individuals only, wrestling with God
by themselves through the dark night of the soul. There is no
congregation, no ‘ gathered church.’ One can discern merely
‘those weak and scattered brethren ’ whom the Baptist Circular
of 1653 hoped to ‘communicate with groundedly according to
the rule of Christ.’ So long as the Commonwealth lasted the
majority of Dissenters saw no reason to separate from their mother
church. It had been swept and garnished and the unclean
spirits driven out. Moreover, Thomas Kidner, who had been
1x. A Garden Inclosed and Wisdom jusisfied only of her Children. Being
two Exercises delivered at Newport Pagnell, for declaration whereof the Author
was then mprisoned and since accused for deltvertng of Blasphemie. Paul Hobson.
1647.
THE BAPTISTS 55
appointed Minister here in 1648, was a man after their own heart.
He is described upon his stone as ‘ a burning and a shining light ’;
and, if he was not all that, he was at least the soul of tolerance.
So long as they left him in peace to collect books and save his
bibliophile’s soul, he cared little what men thought or said or
did. Each one must read the Book of Life after his own fashion.
Some good Puritans may have been pained to find in his library
(376) such questionable tomes as Favours’s Antiquity triumphing
over Novelty against the late Upstart Heresies, and Bastwick’s
Utter routing of the Independents and Sectaries, and Shute’s
Plague of Froggs; but Kidner’s convictions were sound enough.
When the time came, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1662, he also
was amongst the ejected who suffered for conscience’ sake. In
the meantime he respected the conscience of others, and gave
every man his due. Joseph Besse, the author of the Sufferings of
the Quakers, 1. 242, calls him a persecutor, and charges him with
prosecuting his parishioners in the Exchequer ‘ out of mere
malice ’; but it was only when they denied him hzs dues, i.e. his
tithes, that Kidner became unkind. If he were unable to collect
tithes, it was evident he could not go on collecting books. It
is not until 1658 that Hitchin Baptists began to absent themselves
from Kidner’s ministrations in any numbers. That was the
year of the famous disputation over Infant Baptism between
Henry Denne and Peter Gunning which was held at the Church
of St. Clement Danes in the Strand and lasted two whole days (507).
But it was not so much Denne who persuaded the Hitchin
Dissenters to leave their mother church. In the place of that
fiery comet of a man who was here to-day and gone to-morrow
a new star had arisen, one that was to stand fixed and for ever
in the firmament of heaven.
The name and family of John Bunyan were known already to
the people of this parish. His aunt, Alice, the daughter of ‘Thomas
Bunyan of Elstow, had lived here many years, and had been
buried at St. Mary’s 1n 1614. His sister, Elizabeth, had been
baptized here in 1638. His wife and child are said to have
sheltered here whilst he lay for the first time in Bedford Gaol,
1660-1672. In after years his son John was to leave Bedford
and try his fortunes here (x). As for Bunyan himself, there
were scores of disbanded soldiers at Hitchin who remembered
x. These facts, which are taken from the registers and records of St. Mary’s,
are not noticed in Dr. Brown’s standard Lzfe of Bunyan (500).
lar
56 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
the raw, foul-mouthed (xi) recruit with whom they had served
in the garrison at Newport Pagnell. Dead as a stone, he had
seemed, to all the things of God. Now they learnt with amaze-
ment of his turning godly, and of his being chosen by Pastor
Gifford’s church at Bedford in 1658 to go out into the villages
and preach. But when they heard this converted tinker with
their own ears their amazement turned to admiration and once
again to awe. They had not heard it on this wise before. In
the furnace of his zeal and on the ringing anvil of his speech
he fashioned their hearts anew.
VI
From this time forward, and even during the twelve years of
his first imprisonment, Bunyan was constantly in these parts.
Sometimes he would ride direct to Hitchin by way of Shefford
Hardwicke, where his staunch friend, James Taylor (xii), lived.
More often he would make a circuitous preaching tour by way
of Harlington, Bendish, Wain Wood, Meldreth, Gamlingay, and
so round again to Bedford. The good people of Hitchin would
steal away and meet him either at Bendish, five miles away, or
Wain Wood, two miles away, and usually at dead of night (570).
Hidden away in the country, these were places well adapted
for persecuted, hunted men. The ‘ Puritan Preaching-Shed,’ as
it was called, at Bendish had originally been a malt-house, and
was so low that no man of any stature could stand upright within
it. The building with its thatched roof ran in two directions,
the pulpit, which is now removed to the Baptist Chapel at Breach-
wood Green, being placed at the angle. Adjoining the pulpit,
there was a high pew in which the ministers could sit out of the
sight of informers. At the back of it there was a door by which
xi. Some of his biographers have scouted his own confession that he ‘ had
but few equals in cursing, swearing, lying and blaspheming the holy name of
God,’ and have suggested that this was a habit merely of his early youth. But
he was a grown man, when one who was ‘herself a very loose and ungodly
wretch,’ and therefore not overnice, protested that 1t made her tremble to hear
him, that he was the ungodlest fellow for swearing she heard in all her life,
and that 1t was enough to spoil all the youth in the whole town ’ (560. 60).
xu. This good man and his wife were buried in the garden at Shefford
Hardwicke, where their headstones can be seen to this day. Whenever it was
known that Bunyan would come that way, Taylor used to gather all the neigh-
bouring Dissenters into his parlour. The preacher came to Shefford when his
ticket-of-leave was for the night only, for he could just manage to ride the
eight miles, exhort the brethren, and get back before the break of day.
Seon] Jonweg Aq Suimeip & wolg
TWH S.NVANNG@ AM ADVLLOO AHL
THE BAPTISTS 57
they could escape should any magistrates or constables appear.
Close to Bendish is Mobbs Hole, where Bunyan was brutally
handled on one occasion when visiting Thomas Younge, and the
tree at Tinker’s Hall, beneath whose shade he is said to have turned
again on one occasion to his old trade and mended the villagers’
pots and pans (xiii) (570).
At Wain Wood, in Hitchin parish, there was no preaching-
shed. The cottage is still there with its pleasant ingle-nook,
in which Bunyan smoked many a peaceful pipe. But it was in
the woodland dell which is still known as Bunyan’s Dell, under
the trees and under the stars, that he preached to his ‘ gathered
church,’ which numbered sometimes over a thousand souls
(560. 251). If it drenched with rain, there were four devoted
women ever at hand to hold an apron above his bare head as he
preached (561). But here, in the neighbourhood of Hitchin
town, where their oppressors dwelt, there was need to protect
him from something more serious than rain. Scouts were posted
upon Tatmore Hills to give warning of the approach of any officers
of the law. Sometimes it was thought necessary to disguise
the preacher himself in a smock-frock, and make him hold a
wagoner’s whip (574. 13). The tale still lingers of one such
hazardous night when, as Bunyan ran away upon the approach
of an informer, a woman called after him in mocking tones,
‘Where is your God now?’ ‘In Micah vii, 7-10,’ he shouted
over his shoulder; an answer quick as lightning, which, it is
said, was blest to her conversion (559. 641). ‘I will wait,’ says
Micah in the passage referred to, ‘ I will wait for the God of my
salvation: my God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O
mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness,
the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation
of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He
plead my cause, and execute judgement for me: He will bring
me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness.
Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover
her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God ?’
xii. After many wanderings, Bunyan’s anvil came in the year 1905 into the
possession of Mr. John Beagarie of Hitchin. It has Bunyan’s name cut in
large characters upon it and the year 1647 1n which he left the Army. For its
authenticity see the pamphlet issued by Mr. Beagarie 1n 1925: New Documen-
tary Evidence of John Bunyan as a Soldter, with an Account of the finding of his
Brazer’s Anvil. In 1927 the anvil was sold by Mr. Beagarie to Sir R. Leicester
Harmsworth.
58 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
VII
Just above Wain Wood stood Hunsdon House, the home of
those six brothers Foster who long befriended Bunyan whilst
preaching in these parts. Steadfast and true men, ‘ distributing
to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality,’ whose descendants
likewise have borne honoured names in the annals of Noncon-
formity (xiv) (574. 59). A mile to the south, over the fields,
stood Kingswalden Bury, the family home of Sir Matthew Hale,
the judge with whom Bunyan’s wife pleaded so importunately
to set her husband free (560. 156). ‘That was in 1661, nine
months after Bunyan’s arrest at Harlington ‘ for devilishly and
perniciously abstaining from coming to church to hear divine
service and for being a common upholder of unlawful meetings
and conventicles to the great disturbance and distraction of the
good subjects of this kingdom’ (560.152). It is interesting to
note that Francis Wingate, the magistrate who signed the warrant
of committal, had for his wife Lettice Peirce, whose father had
been Vicar of Hitchin from 1620 to 1636 (560. 140). As Wingate
retired to his parlour to draw up the muttimus for Bedford Gaol
there came in one whom Bunyan describes as ‘ that old enemy
of the truth, Dr. Lindall.” Once again Hitchin is concerned,
for Lindall, who had been curate of Hitchin under Peirce, not
only took over the living on his vicar’s death, but his vicar’s
widow as well, thus becoming father-in-law to Wingate, who on
the next vacancy appointed him to his own parish of Harlington
(560. 142).
The scene which followed is well described by Dr. John
Brown: ‘ Lindall,’ he says, ‘ came in to give this tinker-preacher
a piece of his own mind. Bunyan with fitting self-respect quietly
replied that he was not there to speak with him, but with the
Justice. Lindall then angrily asked how he could prove that
he had any right to preach? Bunyan replied that he had the
right which the Apostle Peter gave when he said, “‘ As every
man hath received the gift, even so let him minister the same.”’
xiv. All through the 250 years of the church’s existence the Fosters have
been 1n membership, and, with but few intervals,in the diaconate. The present
head of the family, Matthew Henry Foster, was elected to the office of deacon
as far back as 1866 Those who can come by the scarce pamphlet of Edward
Foster on The Genealogy and History of the Foster Family (1856) will do well
to read 1t through, for apart from its biographical value 1t throws much light
upon the history of the Tilehouse Church (555).
THE BAPTISTS 59
A little nonplussed at this, Lindall fell into that abuse which is
sometimes the refuge of men foiled in argument, and said taunt-
ingly that he remembered reading of one Alexander, a copper-
smith, who did much to oppose and disturb the Apostles—
“aiming, “tis like, at me,’’ says Bunyan, ‘‘ because I was a
tinker.”” Not to be behindhand, Bunyan replied that he too
remembered something from his reading, to the effect that very
many priests and pharisees had their hands in the blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He was in the mood, he tells us, for going a
little further still, but just at that moment there came into his
mind the passage, ‘‘ answer not a fool according to his folly ’’;
and after that he was, as he says, as sparing of his speech as he
could be without prejudice to the truth’ (560. 143). And so
‘ that old enemy of the truth ’ returned to his comfortable rectory-
house, whilst the tinker who ‘ presumed to mend souls as well as
kettles and pans ’ was cast into Bedford Gaol.
It was round about that question of Lindall’s, ‘ What right
have ye to preach?’ that the main battle was to rage; for it struck
at the very heart of the Puritan position. ‘ Who is sufficient
for these things?’ demanded Rotheram, the Orthodox Divine,
of Henry Denne. ‘ Not Coblers and Tradesmen, who to the
dishonour of God and the ruine of this Nation, pollute God’s
Ordinances. . . . How miserably is the word of God mangled
by a company of unlettered, unskilfull Laicks, who never had
authority either from God or man. . . . When such men stand
in God’s stead, let them take heed they do not deliver the Devil’s
message.’ ‘Is a tinker to be thought more infallible than the
pure spouse of Christ?’ wrote Thomas Smith, the Cambridge
Professor of Arabic, after enduring a sermon from Bunyan in
the barn at Toft. ‘ Let me beseech you for God’s sake, for
Christ’s sake, for the Church’s sake, for your reputation’s sake,
for your children’s sake, for your Country’s sake, for your immortal
soul’s sake, consider sadly and seriously what will be the conse-
quences in following such strangers’ (xv) (560. 122). Now,
xv. Though Denne was himself a Cambridge man and a friend of Thomas
Smith, he maintained Bunyan’s call to preach in a vigorous pamphlet entitled
The Quaker no Papist, 1659. The pamphlet 1s so styled because Denne was
upholding the cause not only of the preaching tinker, but of George Whitehead,
the Quaker. ‘They are angry with the tinker,’ says Denne, ‘ because he
strives to mend souls as well as kettles and pans.” ‘Three years before Denne,
however, Bunyan’s own pastor, John Burton, had entered the lists. In a
commendation of Bunyan’s first book, Some Gospel Truths opened, he gives
his testimony to the preacher’s soundness, godly conversation and ability to
60 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
whilst they were few in the land, now, said other sound church-
men, was the time to put these Hot-Gospellers to silence, or
else harry them out of the land. And indeed that blessed con-
summation seemed likely to come to pass. So at any rate Sir
Edward Chamberlayne was thinking as he sat down to prepare
another edition of his popular guide to The Present State of
England. ‘ As for those other Persuasions, whose Professors
are commonly called Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists,
Quakers, Fifth-Monarchy Men, Ranters, Adamites, Antinomians,
Sabbatarians, Perfectionists, Familists, and the rest of those
Mushroomes of Christianity ; as most of them sprang up suddenly
in the late unhappy night of Confusion, so it is to be presumed
that they may in a short time vanish 1n this blessed day of Order;
and therefore not worthy to be described here as Religions
professed in England.’
For a time the Conformists had it their own way. ‘To the
‘weak and scattered brethren’ round Hitchin, Bunyan’s arrest
was a desolating blow. They were as sheep without a shepherd.
There was no one to take the place of the pastor they had lost.
Even if there had been, it would have been of no avail; for the
King who had once promised ‘ that no man should be called in
question in matters of religion’ had now, 1664, given his assent
to the Conventicle Act. If more than four of them met together
for worship, they could each one be fined £5 or sent to prison
for three months. A third offence might mean a fine of
{100 or transportation for seven years. This was in no small
measure the result of a rising planned by Paul Hobson, their
old Baptist chaplain, for August 19 the year before. They
themselves had refused to have anything to do with it. They
could not see the good of these violent counsels, for it was
Venner’s mad outbreak in 1661 that had first set the Govern-
ment against them. But thousands of the Trained Bands
were said to have been won over by Hobson, and numbers in
the Life Guards and the Duke of Albemarle’s regiment. The
designs of the conspirators were highly attractive. The King
was not to be put to death. But he was to be forced to fulfil
the Declaration of Breda, and grant liberty of conscience to all
but Papists. The Excise, the Chimney-tax and all other taxes
whatsoever were to be abolished, and a gospel magistracy and
preach: ‘ This man 1s not chosen out of an earthly, but out of the heavenly
university,’ and has already taken ‘ heavenly degrees.’
THE BAPTISTS 61x
ministry set up. Alas! this Protestant Utopia was not to be
realized. No one ever knew who blundered or who gave the
plan away, though it was darkly hinted that Hobson himself,
ahas Dr. Smith, alzas Dr. Love, had been playing double. But
the leaders of the conspiracy were hunted down, and Hobson
himself was committed to the Tower (xvi) (510).
Vill
Now, the brethren at Hitchin were going to pay the penalty,
too. The testing time had come. Bunyan had said it would:
‘ He suffereth us to hunger and to wander 1n a bewildered con-
dition that we may taste and relish the words of God, and live
not by bread alone’ (560. 211). It was for them to show that
they could keep their souls alive on this bread of affliction, and
prove that hard saying which Paul Hobson had uttered in happier
days: ‘ This life [i.e. the religious life] is a hidden thing; and
you that enjoy it know it and none else. When men have
imprisoned you and think they have overcome you, then are
you most at liberty. When they have brought you to poverty,
then have they most enriched you; when ye die, ye live ’ (504).
Under ‘ great threatenings,’ with informers like beasts of
prey prowling round about them, they were driven to meet in
little companies of three and four, read the Scriptures with
one another, and pray for better times. ‘ All is gone,’ said
Bunyan, ‘ but the soul.’ In spite of all their precautions, however,
on one pretext or another their leaders were taken from them:
John Hurst for being absent from his parish church ‘ fower
Lordes daies past’: Joseph Baker ‘ for suffering unlawfull meetings
in his house on the Lord’s day’: William Bayley, ‘ taken at an
unlawfull assembly and refusing to tell his name’ (xvii): Robert
Heelball, ‘for performing acts of religious adoration otherwise
than according to the laws of this kingdom of England’: and
xvi. The State Papers are full of his examinations, disclosures and petitions.
When the Privy Council had sucked him dry they cast what was left of him
into Chepstow Castle After thirteen months’ solitary confinement his spirit
was broken. He pleads to go to Jamaica, or any distant place. He cannot
face his friends again He 1s ‘for peace and quiet subjection to present
authority ” (510).
xvu. The Quakers were more adroit. When Mary Fisher was apprehended
in 1653 and the officer demanded her name, she replied: ‘ It 1s written 1n the
Book of Life’ And when he demanded her husband’s name she answered:
‘I have no husband but Jesus Christ.’
62 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
numbers ‘for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance’ (72.
176, 183). As a counsel of despair their old leader, Henry
Denne, once so indomitable, was now suggesting they should
make at least a semblance of conformity, and swear what oaths
were required of them with their tongues in their cheeks: vide
his Epistle recommended to all the prisons in this city and nation to
such as chuse Restraint than the violation of their conscience’
(508). But they preferred to remember his former words to
them: ‘If ye are to feare anyone let it be God Almightie, and
not his Majestie, who compared with Him is but as a drop of
rain.’
One mercy was vouchsafed to them. It was not long before
they had preachers with them again, and were able to meet
together, though still clandestinely, as a gathered church. About
this time, says Calamy (538. 1. 259-262), Francis Holcroft, formerly
Fellow of Clare Hall and the ejected minister of Bassing-
bourne, being ‘touched with compassion for the souls of the
neglected country-people,’ began to visit them secretly in their
several villages. He had a famous chestnut nag which carried
him from place to place over three counties, and often galloped
him out of the hands of those who sought to take him. ‘ He
was indefatigable in his labours,’ continues Calamy, ‘ preaching
perpetually about the country; so that there is scarcely a village
in Cambridgeshire but some old person can show you the barn
where Holcroft preached.’ As for his preaching, said Milway
in preaching his funeral sermon, ‘ 1t appeared to me truly apostoli-
cal, primitive and divine ’ (538. 1.261). A certain Mary Church-
man, the daughter of a High Constable and astrong Churchwoman,
as her name suggests, went once out of curiosity to hear him.
In her Memoirs, which were edited by Samuel James, a pastor
in later years of the Hitchin Baptist Chapel, she speaks of going
‘to hear that great man of God, Mr. Holcroft. He preached
powerfully of Hell and judgement,’ she says, ‘ which made me
tremble and secretly wish I had never come there. Every time
he named the name of Christ, it was terrible as the thunder and
lightning upon Mount Sinai. I wished myself covered with
the mountains and looked upon Christ as my terrible judge
and enemy ’” (546. 94). Her mother reproved her for going to a
Dissenting Conventicle, and added ‘they bewitch people into
their persuasions.” The next time Mary Churchman attended,
Holcroft preached in a different vein from these words: ‘ My
THE BAPTISTS 63
beloved is mine and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies.’ To
Mary Churchman this was as balm in Gilead: ‘ He was a good
Samaritan to me that day’ (546, 95). Eventually her father
turned her out of doors for going to these meetings, ‘ not suf-
fering me to carry anything with me except the clothes on my
back. But, a fortnight after, my mother sent me a box of wearing
apparel which I received with these words in my thoughts:
Matt. vi. 32. ‘* For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things ”’’ (546. 94-8).
In another passage of her Memoirs she gives a lively picture
of one of Holcroft’s numerous escapes. Worn out with preaching,
he was lying asleep in the parlour of a farmhouse, where she was
in service, when two magistrates who were in search of him
arrived. Leaving them to beat on the front door, she hurriedly
roused the sleeper, and got him out of a window and over the
garden hedge. The magistrates ‘found some of the slips of
his clothes in the hedges, which made them roar like bloodhounds ;
after which they came and seized a whole house of goods.’
Calamy in his account speaks of Holcroft as having ‘a lion-
like courage, tempered with the most winning affability in his
whole deportment’ (538. 1. 262). And this in spite of trials
which would have broken any ordinary man. His meetings were
constantly disturbed by Cambridge undergraduates, whose evil
habit it was to follow him about and beat drums furiously as
soon as he began to preach. Hus estate, which at one time was
considerable, for he was the son of a knight, dwindled away in
paying fines and in helping other sufferers for truth’s sake in
their need. His books he contrived to keep only by hiding
them in the houses of his friends. ‘They were worth as much as
£40 on his death. For most of the period from 1664 to 1672
he was imprisoned in Cambridge Castle. The original sentence
upon him was to abjure the realm or suffer death asa felon. But
the Earl of Anglesey represented the injustice of his case to
Charles II and obtained a reprieve. It was due to another college
friend, John Tillotson, who became Chaplain to the King in
1670 and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, that Holcroft
enjoyed more liberty in gaol and more frequent leave to go out
preaching than was usual. Unhappily the Toleration Act of
1689 came too late for Holcroft. Like his old chestnut nag, he
was worn out with hard quarters and hard work. ‘Taking cold
whilst preaching to a great crowd in the stifling prison at the
64 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Fleet, he sank into a melancholy and so declined. But as he lay
dying in 1692 the cloud of ‘ deep dejection ’ was removed. He
had, says Milway, ‘a prelibation of glory in his spirit. The
sun of righteousness did arise before he gave up the ghost, that
gave him an abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom.’
He departed with great joy uttering these words: ‘ For I know
that if my earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, I have
a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens ’ (514. 540. 554. 559. 564. 571).
IX
Sometimes, when Holcroft had not freedom to visit his
people, he would write a circular letter for them; one of these
was printed in 1668 entitled 4A Word to the Saints from the Watch
Tower (xvii). In the preface to this Word he describes himself
as ‘a faithful embassadour in bonds for the gospel.’ ‘ I myself,’
he adds, ‘ especially on Lords Days have been at libertie in my
soul, being present in spirit with you in your Solemn Assemblies.
. . . Now let us mind what is before us; and whatever our hand
finds to do in this little space of reviving from bondage let us do
it with all our might; for I am prone to think the night comes
again wherein little work will be done.’
So, from his prison, he preached to his own people. But
more often one of those elders who assisted him in the church
that he had formed would go out preaching in his stead. There
is an alphabetically arranged Spy-Book amongst the State Papers
which shows that as early as 1663 ‘ Mr. Houldcraft with Mr. Audy
and Mr. Lock meetes many hundreds at Hitchin and Pauls
Walden and att Shefford—att all these places dwells many that
are joyned to Houldcraft.” In another place the Spy reports
that ‘ Audy, an assistant to Houle Croft, rides by turne into
Hertfordshire to gather concourse of people, of the middle
and meaner sort, most women and mayds, to their meetings ’
(509).
Of these preaching elders, Joseph Oddy (for that is the true
spelling of his name) was a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford,
and until his ejectment in 1662 had held the living of Meldreth,
close to that of Holcroft, in Cambridgeshire. After preaching
xviii T'he preface is dated from Cambridge Castle, December 27, 1667.
The only copy I have met with 1s in the Bodleian (Pamphlets 25, 22).
THE BAPTISTS 65
unmolested all over the Fens for five years, he threw in his lot
with Holcroft, and helped him to found and superintend many
dissenting churches in Cambs and Herts and Beds. ‘ He was
so much followed,’ says Calamy, ‘ persons travelling twenty
miles to hear him, that he was sometimes constrained to preach
in the open fields; on which account it is to be less wondered at
that he was frequently imprisoned’ (538. 1. 275-6). On one
occasion, when ‘sitting upon his horse that he might more
readily escape, he was broken in upon so abruptly that he was
thrown and quite stunned with the fall. In this state of insensi-
bility he was laid by his inhuman persecutors across his horse,
and in that situation carried to Cambridge Castle.’ Five years’
imprisonment he endured at that time, but ‘ at length was con-
nived at to preach privately to his friends.’ Hus biographer
quotes an impromptu of his on being insulted as he came out of
prison by one of the Cambridge wits :-—
*‘ Good day, Mr. Oddy,
Pray how fares your body,
Methinks you look damnably thin.
Oddy’s reply.
‘'That, Sir,’s your mistake,
*T1s for righteousness’ sake;
Damnation’s the fruit of your sin.’
Oddy predeceased his revered friend by five years; but in death
they were not divided. ‘They lie side by side in a piece of
ground which Holcroft bought as a burial-ground at Oakington,
and their virtues are recorded on one tomb.
Of ‘Thomas Lock, Calamy can say no more than that he was
a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, ‘a very sober and
pious young man’ (538. 1. 280). But, besides Oddy and Lock,
there were three other elders of Holcroft’s church who ministered
at Hitchin. ‘A man of untainted piety and integrity,’ Samuel
Corbyn, Master of Arts of Trinity College, Cambridge, devoted
himself not only as a preacher but as a writer to the cause. He
published amongst other works A Call from the living God to un-
converted Sinners, Advice to Sinners under Convictions to prevent
their miscarrying tn Conversion and Devout Breathings of a Pious
Soul in a hundred Patheticall Meditations (538. 1. 276). In
addition to him, there was Thomas Beard, who in the Civil
War had commanded a company of foot in the Earl of Essex’s
VOL, II. E
66 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
army ; and Joseph Waite, a divine deeply read in Latin and Hebrew
and Greek, but a holder, it seems, of certain ‘ peculiar and rigid
opinions.’ He contended that the Sabbath ought to begin on
Saturday evening, that smoking was a grievous national sin, and
that the wearing of periwigs, especially by ministers, was an
abomination (538. 3. 288).
xX
In the year 1668 Beard and Waite were excluded from
Holcroft’s church for some reason not disclosed. They then
proposed to offer themselves as pastors to the Hitchin people,
who, having some scruples in the matter, wrote for advice to
John Owen, formerly Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and still a
man of authority in the Puritan world. His reply, dated ‘ the
18th of third month 1669,’ is the earliest document entered in
the Church Book of the Hitchin Baptists (xix), and makes it
clear for one thing that the ‘ weak and scattered brethren’ in
this parish had for some little time past been gathered into a
church. Writing ‘in the name and by the Apintment of severall
elders of churches walking in and about London,’ Owen says,
* Breathren Beloved in the Lord, grace and peace bee unto
you from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Wee give
thankes unto God for you all, understanding that the woord
of the Kingdom is cum unto you, not in woord onely, but in
power and in the Holey goste, and that ye are becom followers
of the Lord in this day of affliction and of the patience of Jesus
Christe, and we trust your faith shall grow and the love of every
one of you towards each other shall abound yet more and more.’
Owen then goes on to speak of ‘the scandall that hath com
upon the way of the Gospell by the precipitant and undue casting
out of persons out of the visible kingdom of our Lord,’ and asserts
that Holcroft and his church had ‘no sufficient ground for
their proceeding ’ against Waite and Beard. ‘ That letter of
ours they have in their hands does plainly show what our senti-
ments are. . . . Our advice was that they would again receive
them into fellowship; nor do wee therefor know aney rule of the
xix. Any quotation made throughout the rest of this chapter, which has no
source assigned to it, may be taken as coming from this same church book.
Those students who consult the original should be warned in advance of 1ts
confused pagination. After the first fifty-two pages the book starts afresh at
the other end. The sequence of events 1s very hard to follow.
THE BAPTISTS 67
Gospill that will be infringed by your continuin to Honour Mr.
Waites for his workes sake, or by your encouragin of him in
his Labour in the Lord. Wee rejoyce in that Blessed Success
that the Lord hath crownd his ministry withall amongst you
(som of you being it seems the seale thereof), and wee heartily
therefore pray that Hee may yet be more and more of use unto
you, for your building up ’ (513. 10).
There was a further matter on which the Hitchin Church
had besought Owen’s advice; for they were much exercised
at that time as to whether they ought to be excluding some of
their own members for errors in doctrine. From the beginning
the brethren here had held by the teaching of Denne, Hobson
and Bunyan on the baptism of believers only, denying the validity
of infant baptism. But Holcroft and his preaching-elders, who,
for lack of any ministers of a Baptist persuasion, had stood by
them in this time of persecution, were Pedobaptist or Congrega-
tional in their views (574. 15). Not unnaturally some of the
Hitchin members were persuaded that the way of their new
pastors was the better way, and the unity of the members was
endangered. It shows the statesmanship of Owen that, though
himself a Congregationalist, he would not countenance any
rift in this newly constituted Church. The times were too evil
for them to be contending with one another, even on points of
doctrine. It was for Nonconformity as a whole to conserve
its strength: ‘ As touching those five of your own number that
dissent and separate themselves from your Body, our present
Advise is that you would bee much in prayer for them, Carry
it all in love, with tenderness towards them, and patiently waite
if peradventur God will give them Repentance to the Acknoledgin
of the trueth . . . considering your selves least yee also bee
tempted and remembringe that yee must beare the burdens one
of another that so yee may fulfill the law of Christe. Finally
Breathren, bee Perfect, bee of good comfort, bee of one mind,
and live in peace, and the God of Love and Peace bee with yee
All according to the prayer of your Brethren and Companions
in Tribulation, and in the Kingdom and patience of our Lord
Jesus Christe ’ (513. 10).
XI
Three years later, 1672, when the Declaration of Indulgence
gave a temporary respite from the pains and penalties of the
68 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
second Conventicle Act of 1670, Dr. Owen and Captain Cresset (xx)
applied on behalf of the members to license the house of Sarah
Adams at Hitchin and that of Widow Heath at Preston as places
of worship. Both James Rogers and ‘Thomas Milway, who were
to minister there, are described as ‘ Congregational Teachers ’
(559. 645). But in the following year the Hitchin Church
thought the time had come to have a pastor of their own per-
suasion. Accordingly, on May 25, 1673, they approached the
church at Bedford, and asked if they would give up their brother
Nehemiah Coxe, ‘ in order to the exercise of the office of an Elder
or Pastor’ with them, which the Bedford members ‘ concluded
to take into consideration ’ (560.248). At the end of twelve months
they were still considering; not without cause, as it appears.
Coxe seems to have sprung from a family of some repute (514).
Two generations earlier one of them had been Bishop of Ely.
His father, at one time a Devonshire parson, had confessed
himself a Baptist on the outbreak of the Civil War, and, after
justifying his conversion in print and in public disputes, had
become a minister of much resort, first in Bedford and then in
London. Nehemiah, his son, was brought up obscurely in a Bed-
fordshire village, and for a time earned his living as a shoe-
maker at Cranfield. He was destined, however, to a higher walk
in life. His piety was such that the church at Bedford hastened
to confer the title of Minister upon him. And such was his gift
of tongues that, when prosecuted under the Conventicle Act, he
was able to reply in Greek to his Latin indictment; and, when
he saw that the Judge was enjoying the discomfiture of the
officials, he gave them a taste of Hebrew too. But this gift of
tongues or tongue was his undoing. ‘The plain-dealing brethren
at Bedford complained of it and he complained of them. The
end came on June 7, 1674, when this entry appears in the Bedford
Church Book: ‘ Our brother Nehemiah Cox did publicly make
an acknowledgement of several miscarridges by him committed
xx. This remarkable man first came into notice as a leading spirit amongst
those seven Baptist churches which combined 1n 1644 to 1ssue a General
Confession of Faith. Subsequently he was appointed to the Central Board of
Triers for the Ministry. Hus gifts of administration were so widely recognized
that, notwithstanding his religious views, he was made first Registrar and then
Master of Charterhouse. ‘These offices he held for ten years, and at the same
time was assisting the Government to manage the Mint, to investigate inventions,
to prosecute fraudulent debtors, etc., till the Restoration put a stop to his
multifarious activities—Vide Whitley’s History of British Baptests (1923),
PP. 70, 71, 83.
THE BAPTISTS 69
in uttering several words and performing certain practises that
might justly be construed to have a tendencie to make rifts
and devisions in the Congregation’ (xxi) (560. 248). Having
been informed beforehand of their intended pastor’s fall from
grace, the Hitchin Baptists at this same meeting ‘ intreated that
the church would consent to give up our brother Wilson to be
chosen to office by them’ (560. 249). Over him also, it seems,
there had been trouble in previous years, but that was almost
forgotten. In 1669, at a time when ‘ thy lot is cast in a place of
high transgression,’ a letter of advice and admonition had been
sent to him by the church under the hand of John Bunyan,
Samuel Fenn and four other elders: ‘Our hope of thee is
steadfast through grace; trusting in the Lord that he that hath
begun a good work in thee will perfect it until the day of Jesus
Christ. It is a strange sight to behold those that did feed
delicately to be desolate in the street; and they that were brought
up in scarlet to embrace dunghills. We speak not these things
to shame thee, but as our beloved brother we warn thee. Keep
that which is committed to thy charge; watch and be sober.
And, if thou be inclined to sleep, let that of Delilah rouse thee;
the Philistines be upon thee Samson. Grace be with thee. ‘The
Lord is at hand. Behold the judge stands at the door. Amen.
Even so come Lord Jesus. Written by appointment and sub-
scribed in the name and with the consent of the Congregation ’
(560. 212).
If Wilson as a young man indulged himself in sumptuous
living, he may well be forgiven; his after-life was going to be one
long penance of privation. ‘The church at Bedford, at any rate,
had no misgiving about his fitness for the ministry. Here is the
letter of his dismission, which Bunyan, Fenn, and others write
for him in ‘ 1 month 1677 ’: ‘ The Church of Christ in and about
Bedford to the Church in and about Hitchin sendeth greeting :—
‘ Holy and Beloved. We the fellow-heirs with you of the grace
of life, having taken your earnest desires concerning our giving
xxi. The career of this extraordinary man would be worth following and
finding out. W. T. Whitley, in the work above cited, gives some particulars :
* After such an experience he naturally preferred to come to London, where,
with the help of a periwig and a gold-topped cane, he got together a capital
practice as a doctor. Perhaps few of his patients knew that he was also an
acceptable Baptist minister, soon to be called to the joint-pastorate of the most
important London church—that of Petty France,’ in what was known later
as York Street. See also Sloane MSS., 656, f. 1, and Trans. of the Baptst
Historical Soctety, vol. vi, pp. 58-59.
70 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
up to you our beloved brother John Wilson into serious considera-
tion, with much praire to God for direction in so waitie a matter,
have at last (God haveing bowed the heart of the Church to
consent to what you have both longed and, as we trust, much
prayed for) Granted and by these lines do grant and give up our
beloved brother to fellowship with you for youer mutuall edifica-
tion and joy of faith. We need not as some others to commend
him to you, God having before prevented that by commending
him to you Himself. Now, God and our Father, and our Lord
Jesus Christ that great shepherd of the sheep, make this both our
and youer well-beloved brother a double blessing to you both
in his ministry and membership with you, and also a watchman
over you, if God and the Church with you shall call him ther
to. Amen’ (513. 11).
XII
After three months’ trial, on the first of the fourth month 1677,
‘Brother Wilson gave in his Answer unto the Calle that the
Church before had given him to the office of a pastor to serve
the Church in that Relation as God should Helpe him, which
he excepted before the congregation’ (513. 13). There were
two other important matters concluded in the church-meeting
assembled together at Brother John Foster’s that same day.
Ralph Bigg was given ‘a Solom call to the ofice of a Deacon ’;
and those five who were still possessed with scruples about adult
baptism were given their dismissal to Holcroft’s Pedobaptist
Church at Cambridge: ‘The Church of Christ in and about
Hitchin unto the Church of Christ in and about Cambridge
sendeth greeting. Beloved in the Lord, the Church of Christ
heare, though conscious to herselfe that she walketh after the
faith and charitee comanded in the gospel, yet doe grant and
conclude for love sake that our brothers George Wilkinson,
Richard Sheppard, Joseph Cooper, and our sisters Jackson and
Flindall, who desiring to be dismissed unto you, upon som scruples
of conscience with reference unto some things amongst us (which
yet we account good and godly), we therefor do dismiss them
unto you for their better edification, desireing they may be a
blessing unto you ” (513. 12).
Four weeks later, ‘ Brother Wilson was sett aparte to the ofice
of a paster, there being present Bros. Anthony Ramer, John
James, and Thomas Kelsey of London and Samuel Fenn of
THE BAPTISTS 7
Bedford ’ (513. 13). Bunyan himself was not able to be present
for the good reason that he had set out for London, taking with
him the manuscript of Pélgrim’s Progress for publication. At
the outset of his ministry Wilson, who was always a man of
peace, made an earnest attempt at a working arrangement if
not a union with Holcroft’s church at Cambridge: ‘ Grace be
with you,’ he begins his letter of advances, ‘we have as some
of you know often signified our desire of reconciliation with
you, and the Brethren do by these lines signifie to you the same
againe, for it is not according to our principles (which are the
principles of peace) to do anything that should have a tendency
to maintain differences among brethren. Wherefore if you be
willing to give us a meeting that if possible we may come together
in order to peace, we whose hands are hereunder subscribed
do signifie that we shall heartily embrace it, and to that end do
propound to meet you either at Henry Warner’s, John Sympson’s
or Dr. Hutchinson’s ’ (513. 14). To this overture there was no
response.
If they could not be at one with the church at Cambridge,
they were at least resolved to be united in themselves. On
October 25, 1681, meeting together at Brother Thomas Field’s
house, and ‘so fully that very few was absent,’ they ‘ renewed
their covenant to the Lord and one to another with fasting and
prayer.’ And this is the covenant to which, ‘ none-contradicting
but by silent lifting up our hands, we had the Amen or universall
consent of all’: ‘ We who, through the Marcy of God and our
Lord Jesus Christ, have obtained grace to give ourselves to the
Lord and one to another by the will of God, to have communion
as Saints in our gospel fellowship, Doe before God our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holly Angels agree and promese
all of us (the Lord assisting) to walke together as a church of
Jesus Christ in love to the Lord and one another, and indevor
to yeld sinceare and harty obedienc to the laws, ordinances, and
appointments of our Lord and Law-Giver in his church’
(513. 16).
The effect of this covenant is soon observed in the discipline
enforced upon those brothers and sisters who proved a stumbling-
block to the ‘ walking-together ’ of the members or brought dis-
creditonthe church. The first case entered in the Church-book
is that of Thomas Field, at whose house the covenant had been
taken. He has to answer ‘ for receveing into his Flocke another
72 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
man’s lam and unjustlie Retaineing it as his own without any
notis or publication thereof according to custom and for his
makeing som promise to his sheppard to keep it secrett, contrary
to the word of God, Exodus 20,17. Deuteronomy 22,13. After
the opening of his evill and the circumstances of it, hee was
called and, being charged with it, did acknowledg his sinn
before the church who then to clear themselves of his wickedness
and vindicate the name and honer of God did give a sollom
admonistion and withdrew thear communion from him till
God should give him repentance and he bring forth frute meet
for it” (513.15). ‘The next case is that of Mara Newton, who
was accused of the following ‘ crimes ’:—
‘x. Hir long absenting hirself from the Assemblies of the
church contrary to Hebrews 10, 25.
‘2. Hir frequenting bad company or asotiating hir selfe
with frothy people and being very Light and gameing with them
contrary to Ephesians 5. 4, 13.
‘3. Hir being out of hir master’s house at unseasonable hours
and also disembling to hir master in asking to goe sometimes
to meetings which she never went to but spent hir time els
whare contrary to Ephesians 4. 25, Colossians 3.9, Proverbs 24.25.
‘4. Hir sliteing and turiing away from the Messengers that
were sent to hir to admonish her for her evills.
‘5. Hir conteneuing in wickedness after these privat admoni-
tions given hir by brethren, and after promeses from time to
time of coming to the meetings and indevering to Reform her
life’ (513. 16). From this hardened sinner also the communion
of the Church was withdrawn. There are other cases recorded
against Thomas Sergent for ‘ the sinn of Drunkenness, gameing
and Company-keeping with profane persons’; James Smith
‘for his scandelous and reprochfull tippling at Alehouses ’;
John Warner, ‘ for his contineuing in a vain Lous [loose] reproch-
full conversation, and his contempt of the church’s admonition ’;
Henry Camp ‘for frequent companying with vaine, carnall low
persons and for long neglect of Church Assemblies ’ (513. 16-19).
XITI
These backslidings of believers are the more numerous in
Wilson’s day because his influence and that of his deacons were
so frequently removed. Soon after his appointment as pastor
THE BAPTISTS 73
the persecution had broken out afresh. By the advice of Edward
Draper, Chief Constable of Hitchin, the authorities had tendered
Wilson the Oath of Allegiance, which they knew his conscience
could not accept; and accordingly they had him cast into Hertford
Gaol, where for the greater part of seven years he remained. At
each quarter sessions he was brought before the magistrates; the
necessary farce of submitting the oath was performed; and the
prisoner, giving always the same answer, was taken back to
gaol (512. 1). And there, sooner than forswear himself, he was
resolved to stay ‘ until the moss grew upon his eyebrows,’ as
Bunyan had picturesquely said. Seven long and seven lean
years; but he was not comfortless or quite forsaken. He could
read the copy of Pilgrim’s Progress which Bunyan had given
him (xxii). Every week without fail one of the devoted Foster
brothers would visit him with a basketful of fresh country-fare
(548). And now and again a leading member of his church
would be brought in as a prisoner and share his cell, e.g. John
Thorowgood, a man, says the Church-book, ‘ of grate godlynes
and fidelity,’ who for three years, 1681-4, at the wish of the
congregation had been preaching in Wilson’s place (xxii1) (513-15).
With most of the members, however, it was a question of a fine.
The eighteen who were presented in 1683 ‘for not coming to
church for one month last past’ paid only five shillings each
and went on paying this sum at every subsequent conviction
(512.5). ‘The Fosters, who not only lent their house for meetings
but on occasion preached, were fined {10 and sometimes {£20
each month under the second Conventicle Act of 1670, but the
full penalty was not often collected (548). In default of payment,
xxu The fifth edition, published by Nathaniel Ponder at the Peacock 1n
the Poultry, near Cornhill, 1680. Having found this precious, though imper-
fect, volume 1n the hands of a bookseller at Ilfracombe, I tried to secure 1t for
the Tilehouse Chapel, but the rapacious owner put the impossible figure of
£250 upon it. It was subsequently sold by public auction and realized four
guineas. Its present owner 1s Sir R. Leicester Harmsworth.
xxiu. ‘Thorowgood happened to be the tenant of Draper, the Chief Constable
of Hitchin, and his landlord tried to shield him. ‘ The presentment against
him,’ said Draper, ‘13 a mistake ” But the officer of the court, ‘ making enquiry,
found he was not conformable, but because he was Mr. Edward Draper’s
tenant, therefore he would have blinded me and gott him out of the presentment’
(512, 3). Draper’s name has been handed down to infamy by the Hitchin
Dissenters as their most inveterate and unprincipled persecutor. With
righteous satisfaction, 1f not relish, their later historians observe the decline of
his family as though a curse were upon 1t; and they do not forget to note that
one of his descendants was driven to avail himself of the Bread Charity which
his ancestor had founded.
74 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
distress was levied on the goods and chattels of the brother or
sister concerned. ‘These were carried off to a disused brew-
house in Dead Street and there stored until there was sufficient
to justify an auction sale. On one occasion, whilst Wilson was
in prison, some evil-disposed person broke into his house at
Bull-Corner and dragged his furniture into the market-place,
where they proposed to make a burnt-offering of it in the presence
of the people. But this was more than even Draper dare allow
(574. 19).
The Church seems to have come through all this baptism
of fire untouched. The God of Love and Peace had been with
them. ‘The covenant had been kept. ‘Those few weak brethren
who conformed under the stress of persecution had been cast
out. Their names are not to be found in this Church-book but
in the book of the Established Church and in the rolls of the
Quarter Sessions; e.g. 1683: ‘ Certificate by William Gibbs,
vicar of Hitchin, and his churchwardens that Robert Shipsea of
Hitchin hath for several Lord’s Dayes last past repaired to
the parish church to heare divine service and sermon and
there hath continued publicly in the face of the congregation
then and there assemblled soberly and orderly all the time
according to the laws in that behalf made and provided ’
(512. 6).
At last came the blessed year of their deliverance. A King
who was a Protestant indeed ascended the throne of England;
and with the Toleration Act of 1689 the bitter struggle in which
Dissenters had asserted their right to exist and their liberty to
worship according to their conscience was ended. 'The prisons
were opened. ‘The preachers came into their own pulpits again.
Nonconformity was ‘ established.’ Up to this time the Church
had met in one or another of the brethren’s houses, whichever was
least suspected, or in a woolstapler’s barn (xxiv) in Bancroft which
was lent to them by Sarah Adams (574. 20). Now it was possible
to have a settled meeting-place, and the members went about
this with such a will that by 1692 it was not only built but paid
for. ‘The building, of which an illustration is prefixed to this
xxiv. This barn stood at the rear of what 1s now No. 20 Bancroft and the
police station. In the wall of the garden of the house can still be seen the
stumps of some of its supporting timbers. Francis Lucas, who once proposed
to write a history of Hitchin, used to say that the Adam-and-Eve beerhouse,
a little farther down Bancroft, was named after and in mockery of this barn
of Sarah Adams (53).
AWHAVOV S,\MOUM OVVSI VTHTNNOS ‘ASNOH LLOOS FULNaO AHL NI
GNV ‘NOOK ATVH G10 3HL LI OL LXN ‘Laa1 TNGULXd JHL NO ASNOH S.NOSTIM NHOf ONIMOHS Sggi ‘YaNYOO TING
THE BAPTISTS 75
chapter, stood in Dovehouse Close (xxv), farther back than the
present chapel in Tilehouse Street, and had its unassuming entry
in the unfrequented lane of Wratten. Of the £207 which it
cost £89 was subscribed in London: Thomas Hollis giving £15
to buy the ground; John Strudwick, in whose house at Snow
Hill Bunyan had died four years previously, giving £5; and
Thomas Locke, who had preached here so often, £10. The rest
was made up, as the Church-book says, ‘ in the country ’—that is
to say, amongst the members, who gave not only money but
labour and materials too. Amongst the names of the country
people one sees that of Agnes Beaumont, who had been so
cruelly slandered in 1674 for riding pillion-wise behind Bunyan
to Gamlingay meeting, and Robert Shipsea, who wished to creep
back into the fold now that the persecution was over. As a
necessary part of the chapel ‘a baptizing-place’ was pro-
vided (xxvi), and for the sake of privacy and protection the
whole building was enclosed with a high brick wall (513. 1-3).
AIV
To have this ‘ local habitation and a name’ [Salem Chapel]
was a great blessing to the Church. The congregation grew
apace, insomuch that before twenty years were past the chapel
had to be enlarged.
In a political survey of the Hitchin district, compiled in 1704,
Defoe remarked ‘it is Whiggish and full of Dissenters ’ (518).
But though their numbers had increased, they were still of the
“mean and middling sort,’ and poor as a Nonconformist mouse.
In an earlier survey of 1691 it had been noted that ‘ att Hitchin
the Congregation were not able to raise above {10 per annum ’
for the pastor. One amongst them there was of good family
and fortune, and he, like St. Luke, was a physician. The rest
belonged to the undistinguished company of husbandmen, hemp-
dressers, cordwainers, weavers, warreners, plough-wrights, shep-
xxv. This field name was constantly alluded to in sermons. Wilson,
preaching one Sunday from Matthew ro. 16: ‘ Behold I send you forth as sheep
in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves,’
told them never to forget they were sitting 1n Dovehouse Close (952. 3). It
has long since been forgotten by the Church. It 1s, perhaps, as well. The
translators of to-day require us to read not ‘ harmless,’ but ‘ simple.’
xxvi. In 1725 Thomas Hollis presented four baptizing garments—one for
the minister, one for a man, and two for women.
76 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
herds, gardeners, and the like—the common sort of people whom
our blessed Saviour chose as His apostles. It could hardly be
expected at that time of day—perhaps never—that Baptists
would attract any persons of social standing to their modest
chapel, ‘ that receptacle of new notions ’ as it was unkindly called.
So far as the Anglicans were concerned, Sacheverell had said the
last word of these schismatics: ‘ They are miscreants, begotten in
rebellion, born in sedition, and nursed in faction.’
Nevertheless, in spite of poverty and prejudice, the Church
continued to grow. At Bendish, Pirton and Preston other
meeting-places were set up, looking to Hitchin as their head.
More care was given to the organization of Church life. Not
only the Pastor, but the ruling Elders and the Deacons, were
constantly going about amongst the brethren lest any breath of
scandal or false doctrine should find its way into the fold. If
any brother or any sister left the town, he or she was safeguarded
with letters of dismission to another church, and followed not
only with prayer but with periodical inquiry: ‘ 1703. Admonition
sent by the church to John Warner of Epping to rebuke him
for his vain conversation and neglect of the worship of God’
(513.19). ‘1707. Letter of recommendation to Sister Sarah
Field to sit down with the church of Christ walking with Mr.
Bragg and Mr. Collens during her stay in the Citty ’ (513. 23).
This vigilance of pastoral oversight makes all the stranger the
apparent neglect of Bunyan’s eldest son John, a professed member
since 1693 of the Bedford church, who in 1701 left his father’s
house in St. Cuthbert’s parish in that town to make a living at
Hitchin. It is clear that he needed help and perhaps a restraining
hand. The records of St. Mary’s Church show that he was
* likely to become chargable to the poor of our parish.’ Further-
more, in that same year he was presented ‘ for drawing beer or
ale without a lysence,’ and two years later, on another offence,
was committed to Hertford Gaol. By some means, however, he
made his way back to Bedford in 1705, where his old friends set
him up again in his father’s business as a brazier, and persuaded
the Corporation to lease him a cottage for twelve shillings a
year (517).
From 1697 onwards the members were much exercised about
the health of their beloved pastor. ‘Those seven years in Hertford
Gaol had left their mark on him, and a paralytic seizure deprived
him of what little strength was left. But his spirit was indomit-
THE BAPTISTS 77
able. For several years he had himself carried to meeting and
preached to his flock sitting in a chair which Bunyan had given
to him, and which is still a treasured heirloom of the Church.
Fortunately there were two members of the Church able to
assist Wilson in his time of need. Of the ‘sober and godly
conversation and walking’ of Henry Sheppard, the Church-
book has much to say, but in brief ‘ it is such as hath becom the
gospell of Christ. ... From the consideration of the gifts and
graces of the holly Gost bestoed upon him and his dilligent
studdy of Divine things, whereby he hath attained to some
competent understanding in the mysteries of the Gospell, we do
judge him meet to be imployed in the work of the Ministry
publickly ’ (513. 18).
Wilson’s other assistant was John Hutchinson, to whose skill
and fame as a doctor reference has already been made (Vol. I,
p. 263). Though ‘ congregational in judgement,’ he had joined
himself to the Hitchin Baptists, and spent his talents in their
service. According to Calamy, ‘he had good skill in music,
was an excellent Grecian, spoke French very fluently, and was
declared no contemptible poet. He was of a humble, meek and
peacable temper; a great enemy to rash anger, and very patient
and submissive under trouble ’ (538. 1. 277).
XV
In 1705, when Hutchinson left Hitchin and Sheppard
received a call to be pastor of the Bridgewater Baptists, the
Church, on Thomas Hollis’s advice, sent an invitation to John
Needham, then a young student at the Attercliffe Academy, to
be Wilson’s ‘ constant assistant.’ ‘ We entreat you to accept of
our Invitation who shall be ready to doe what we can according
to our small abillity to make your life comfortable * (513. 20).
Wilson wrote separately to Hollis: ‘ Our monthly meeting 1s next
Thursday, and we have agreed to spend the time in prayer for
the young man that, as he hath good naturall and acquired parts,
so he may have a rich Anointing of the Spirit of Christ; and
tho’ he may com to us under som Disadvantages, having one
goe before him that hath most of his time preached without the
use of any notes in the pulpit and of a loud voice, yet I hope
he will not be discouraged and that we shall find him a savoury
preacher ’(519). ‘There would seem a touch of misgiving as
78 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
well as condescension in the old pastor’s letter, but the young
student arrived with such a comprehensive testimonial from his
principal that all doubts were put to rest: ‘ These are to certify
that this our brother gave good satisfaction to us of the Grace
of Christ in him upon his admission into Church fellowship,
and ever since walked becoming the gospell in sobriety, modesty,
graveity, dilligence and sweetness of temper with soundness in
the faith and orderliness of behaviour. We therefore affection-
ately recomend him to your tender notice and respect and you
to the grace of Christ as your brethren in the Lord ’ (513. 21).
After a ‘twelvemonth tryall of his gift,’ the members return
thanks to God and to Thomas Hollis ‘ for this so well and merci-
fully providing for us. We pray that we may not sin away so
great a mercy ’ (513. 22).
In 1709, ‘on account both of our present pastor’s naturall
decays and the desire we have to see ourselves in more settled
circomstances,’ Needham was given a call to the joint-pastorate;
on certain terms, however. ‘ For the eas and satisfaction of
them members that differ from the rest in point of Baptism,
Mr. Needham shall freely and willingly make a chang with any
pastor of another church whome they shall desire that shall
come peacably to baptize their childeren, so that their consciences
may be as fully satisfied in the practis of there judgment as if
they had a pastor of there own mind; because what ever pastor
doth the work is but a circumstance and not Essential to the
Thing itself ’ (513. 24).
Having set his earthly tabernacle in order, Wilson had the
‘ eas and satisfaction ’ of performing one last work of piety with
his pen, which was the only thing he was now able to wield.
Some years before, in 1692, in collaboration with the pastor of
the Bedford Church, Ebenezer Chandler, Wilson had collected
into a folio volume, and edited and prefaced with an epistle to
the reader, the works of his lifelong friend, John Bunyan. A
labour of love, but a labour indeed, for, of the twenty works
included, ten were printed for the first time and from manu-
scripts that would have made any ordinary editor despair (xxvii).
Now, Wilson wished to write his last will and testament as
a preacher and bequeath to hair-splitting theologians and
inflexible divines that spirit of unity in Christ which had been
xxvii. In 1736 Wilson’s grandson, Samuel Wilson, completed another folio
edition, containing twenty-seven additional works, which the rights of publishers
had prevented the 1692 editors from using.
THE BAPTISTS 79
the text and application of his life. Unless they could pass
beyond the negative state of toleration to the active state of love,
what hope for religion could there be? On one thing he was
resolved, his last word should be not of the Dissidence of Dissent,
but the comprehension of all in Christ. As for himself, he
stood with Bunyan in this matter, and what he had written of
him in 1692 was the faithful record of himself: ‘ He was a true
lover of all that love our Lord Jesus, and did often bewail the
different and distinguishing appellations that are among the
godly, saying he did believe a time would come when they should
all be buried.’ To hasten that blessed consummation was the
only aim and intent of Wilson’s valediction: An Essay wherein
National love and unity 1s recommended, 1ts opposites Exposed,
Arguments for it Propounded, and all Contenders blamed: to which
ts Subjoyned by the author a poem containing a lamentation for
Church Divisions. At a time when Conformists and Noncon-
formists were at one another’s throats, only relaxing their grip
to deal a side blow at the Papists, this essay is an astonishing
performance. It should be read in full. Of the poem, a few
lines may be given here from Wilson’s scathing catalogue of
Church divisions and his exposure of those who were rending
the seamless robe of Christ :—
“We Read, and Hear, and Preach the Laws of Love,
Yet all doth wind and airie vapours prove.
Christ’s Legacie we seem for to embrace,
But still continue far from thoughts of Peace.
What’s plain, love one another, we neglect,
What’s dark and controverted we respect.
Our Faith 1s Faction, Zeal 1s Christened strife,
Religion’s all n Talk, but none 1n life.
Our Pray’rs ’gainst one another fervent are;
For building up our Breaches cold and bare.
Like to our Climate frozen 1s our Love;
Our Furie like the Torride Zone doth prove.
Our verie praise of Jarring notes 1s made.
What one doth Preach by others 1s Gatn-said.
One hotlie doth for paritie contend;
While others highlie Prelacie commend.
One doth Festivals in the Church applaud:
Which some call relicts of the Roman bawd.
Some are for Pray’rs ex tempore, anon
Others embrace what holy Church doth con.
Some when they Pray, the Pater noster use;
Others the same industriously refuse.
80 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Some with the public chore would all baptize;
Others 1n private would it solemnize.
Some kneel when they partake, which others call
A posture that’s Idololatricall.
Some would Lay-Elders in the church have place;
Others decry them as an upstart Race.
Some Ceremonies fit and decent Call;
Others, a Practice that’s Papisticall.
Some glorifie with mouth the Three 1n one;
Others that Hymne most zealously doe shun.
Some make the Royal Pow’r a sacred thing;
Others do them before Tribunals bring.
Thus, thus we toile, and struggle, strive and fight,
While Truth and Peace evanish out of sight.
Our Foes that on the seven hills reside,
With those who down 1n darkest cells abide,
Pagod-adorers, and the Musulmen,
And stubborn Jews with mirth their sides distend,
Erect their Trophies, and Victorious say,
Aha! so would we have 1t 1n our day;
One Lord, one Faith, one Hope, one Heaven we have;
One sacred Blood to purifie and save;
But where’s one Heart and Soul us to cement?
One Spirit once that hke a Dove was sent?’
It was in 1716 that they carried Wilson for the last time to
his chapel. In his extreme weakness did he perhaps recollect
what Bunyan had written to him nearly fifty years before >—‘ God
help thee brother to remember the days of thy youth; the first
days of David were best. There are but few can say as Caleb:
*‘ As my strength was forty years since, so is it now, both to go
out and come in before the people of God ”’’ (560.212). For
more than forty years now he had gone out and come in before
these people of God. He loved them almost as a father. But
what with ‘ naturall decays’ and unnatural divisions the last
years had been labour and sorrow. He longed to be dissolved
and be with Christ. When that had come to pass, they buried
him, as was meet and right, beside his pulpit, where, being
dead—his loud voice silent in the grave—he yet preacheth.
AVI
Of John Needham, who succeeded Wilson, and who minis-
tered to the Church over thirty-seven years, there is not much
THE BAPTISTS 81
to tell. He kept the faith, but he did not keep the Church-book.
The official history of that period is accordingly a blank. When
he came to assist Wilson in 1705, he was met by Edward Foster
in the vestry and asked his mame. ‘ Needham,’ he replied.
Whereupon Foster, in his hearty way, clapped him on the back
and said, ‘ And need enough we have of you’(555. 11). From
all accounts, however, Needham was not the man to be clapped
upon the back. Sir Ralph Radcliffe of the Priory, who greatly
admired him, used to clap him on the back also and call him
‘ Father Needham ’ (539. 153). But throughout his life Needham
maintained a portentous gravity. His own daughter declared she
had not heard him laugh more than twice in her life (574. 22).
But ‘ he was affable,’ urges Isaac James, son of that same daughter,
and therefore anxious to be kind, ‘ proficient in astronomy, and
something of a poet’ (574.22). He seems to have added one
hundred and thirty-five members to the Church in the course of
his ministry, and a gallery to the chapel. He was also instru-
mental in getting meeting-houses opened in the neighbouring
villages of Willian, Ippollitts, Gosmore and Offley. ‘ He was
a burning and shining light,’ said John Wilson’s grandson, who,
on the roth of February, 1742/3, preached Needham’s funeral
sermon, ‘ and so acceptable were his labours that few Ministers
have been so well attended; nor did I ever see a larger number
of men in any congregation among the Dissenters ’ (523). Unfor-
tunately only one of his sermons has survived: that preached
at the funeral of Samuel Marsom, the aged pastor of Luton, on
the 26th of January, 1725/6. As one reads one is made to feel
Needham’s deep concern for the righteousness that exalts a nation,
and his distress in the face of that dull and gross contentment
that was spreading itself more and more over the land: ‘ We
must never thro’ carlessness or weariness let down the hands
of faith and prayer either for ourselves or the church of God.
. . . We must watch against a secure, sensual, worldly and luke-
warm frame of heart, which alas is sadly growing upon us ’ (522).
It was in his own pulpit, preaching to his own people, that
he was struck down at length in his fifty-eighth year. ‘ My flesh
and heart fail me,’ he cried out, ‘ but God is my strength.’ For
a time he rallied, and then, says Wilson, ‘ had an easy passage
under the Light of God’s Countenance, filled with much comfort
and Holy joy.’ It was one of his dying requests that his funeral
sermon should be taken from Acis 20. 24, 25—the text chosen
VOL, II. F
82 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
by himself for the sermon he had not been able to conclude.
From the choice it seems as though he had been made to know
his end, and had resolved to preach his own funeral sermon:
‘None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the
ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the
gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that ye
all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God,
shall see my face no more.’ Another dying request was that
little might be said about him—a wish that we have been careful
to observe (523).
XVII
On account of Needham’s death, says the Church-book, ‘A
Sollom fast was appointed to be kept with humiliation and
prayer, that the brethren might humble themselves greatly before
God for their own sins and especially for the Church’s sins,
which may have been a great ingredient to cause God to remove
so valuable a Minister and Pastor from us. All hearts engaged
in fervent prayer to God to give us his Holy Spirit to direct
and guide us in our consultations and make a clear way to the
choice of another Pastor ’ (513.3). On this occasion the choice
was not long delayed. Already—even before Needham’s death—
the Church had made trial of one Samuel James, son of the
Pastor at Hemel Hempstead, and had found him to be ‘a very
deserving and hopeful young Minister.” Now, ‘in this our great
necessity,’ he came again ‘ to supply,’ and within three months
the members declared themselves ‘fully satisfyed with the
Supply that God had been pleased to hand forth to us,’ and
desired that ‘ he would incline to accept the church’s call to the
arduous work of a Pastor, and prayed that God would double
the portion of His spirit upon him, the more to fitt and capacitate
him therefor ’ (513. 4).
In accepting their call, James made it clear that he would in
no way depart from the principles of open communion as laid
down by his predecessor: ‘ Saints as saints, notwithstanding
some small differences in circumstances, so that they were all
under the profession of baptism one way or the other—for that
is essential ’(513.4). It was not only Needham’s principles the
new pastor espoused, but his daughter Mary also, and by her
became the father of eleven children (574.27). The thirty years’
THE BAPTISTS 83
ministry so propitiously begun was to prove more fruitful perhaps
than any in the long history of this Church. At a time when
the cause of religion seemed altogether dead, here at Salem
Chapel James brought about a remarkable revival. Partly, he
says in his diary, July 20, 1751, ‘ by the good old doctrines such
as were taught their fathers by honest John Bunyan,’ partly by
the prayers of those young men and women and ministers of
the neighbourhood who assembled almost daily at his house,
but most of all by the unfaltering example he set before them:
‘May my conversation be in heaven, and my food Christ and
the covenant. ‘These are better than all the world ’ (546. 139).
‘ Blessed be God,” he writes in the Church-book as, one after
another, the new members come forward with their testimonies,
‘ blessed be God for such a harvest of souls. May all the glory
be rendered to him and our humility and thankfulness, not our
pride, be promoted ’ (513.83). In the year 1771 alone he
received twenty-nine into communion, and altogether gave the
right hand of fellowship to one hundred and ninety-five. Nor
were these the only outward and visible signs of the Church’s
growth. In 1752 the field adjoining the chapel was acquired
for a burial-ground, and ten years later the chapel itself was
again enlarged. ‘ This day, May 24th,’ he notes in his diary,
‘they began to enlarge the meeting-house, it being too straight
for the auditory, in the gallery especially. O that my heart
may be more and more enlarged and kept humble ’ (546. 150).
In spite of his diffidence (‘ this villain Shame,’ as good Bunyan
expresses it), he fought every Apollyon in his path. When the
Vicar of Stotfold delivered a course of sermons on the iniquity
of Dissent in 1753, he championed his despised and rejected
people, and trounced the cleric in print. ‘That is why he records
with such pleasure in the same year the conversion of two new
members, ‘ brought off from the Established Church,’ in the
next village to Stotfold, ‘ and I hope both born again and brought
to Jesus which is best of all’ (546.147). When the so-called
Free School at Hitchin shut its doors in the faces of Dissenters
in 1751, he moved heaven and earth, and incidentally the
Attorney-General, to get them opened again (559.647). With his
own people he was just as firm. ‘The pernicious custom that
had grown up in Needham’s time of buying and selling pews
was brought to an abrupt end. The property in these was to
rest no longer in the seat-holders but in the Church itself (513. 54).
84 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
The scruples that some members entertained about sharing their
privileged inheritance in Christ’s kingdom with those in heathen
lands were sternly overruled. In 1766, twenty-six years before
the foundation of the Baptist Missionary Society, James invited
Samson Occum, a North American Indian, to preach the gospel
from his pulpit. The collection in aid of a school for Occum’s
tribe amounted to the extraordinary sum of £84 (559. 647).
In the exercise of Church discipline James was adamant.
Erring brethren, if they showed by their repentance that their
* backslidings were healed,’ were to be forgiven, but not seventy
times seven, nor even seven. ‘They must remember that they
were as men set apart. ‘They must keep themselves unspotted
from the world. If they brought reproach upon the pure and
undefiled religion of the Church, they must suffer the conse-
quences. ‘That the pastor’s standards were too high for many
of the members is clear from the numerous offences that are
entered in the book. Brother Traveller, for example, has to be
cut off ‘ for drinking to excess, profaning the sabbath, and con-
tinued obstinacy in denying such things as were laid to his
charge, though some of them too notorious ’ (513.9, 18). Brother
Mainard, ‘for his unbecoming walk in drinking to excess’
(513.61). Brother Dunton, for adultery, ‘though not without
very deep concern sitting on the face of every member who was
present ’ (513.37). Sister Robinson, ‘ for irregularities in con-
duct.’ Brothers Hine and Child are requested ‘to have con-
versation with our Friend Pack on account of irregularities in
conduct and errors in doctrine ’ (513.37). The case of Brother
Carter, who had married his deceased wife’s sister, was recom-
mended to the prayer and consideration of the members. But
the more they considered it the more difficult it became. Neither
Brother nor Sister Carter would ‘ acknowledge any uneasiness
in the uncommon step they have taken.’ As for the members,
‘some look upon the marriage as Unlawful, nay no less than
Incestuous ’; they held by Leviticus 18. 16, and argued that
the special exception in Deuteronomy 25. 5 was peculiar to the
Jews. Others felt that the prohibition was founded upon the
Ceremonial Law, long since abrogated and abolished. The real
point at issue, according to the pastor, was ‘ whether the Great
Lawgiver may (consistent with the absolute purity of His nature)
dispence with his Moral Precepts.” And that was the poser
which they put to the ‘severall Sister churches of London
THE BAPTISTS 85
(Mr. Stennett’s and Mr. Wilson’s), Luton, Bedford, Hertford
and Hitchin (Independent) for their advice.’ That of the
Bedford Church has been preserved and seems to have been
adopted: ‘ We are pretty unanimous in thinking that the Law
of God is not clear concerning the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness
of such a marriage; that therefore it were much to be wished
they who had ventured upon it had not done it: especially con-
sidering that so many wise and good men esteem it sinful, and
that it has occasioned much offence and trouble to some serious
Christians: but since they themselves saw no iniquity in it, and
it cannot be certainly proved that there is any, we are of opinion
they should not be excommunicated for what they have done’
(513. 19-20).
XVIII
The only other case we shall mention is that of Brother
Saunders, whose excommunication for excessive drinking was
pronounced by James 1n an epistle which we should have liked
to quote in full: ‘ Friend Saunders, I am desired as the mouth
of the Church to inform you that this day was set apart solemnly
to seek God for direction on your account, at the close of which
meeting the Church thought it their duty to withdraw their
Relation from you as a Brother, so that now you are no longer
to be looked upon as a member with us. Had you been present,
methinks you must have been melted to behold with what grief
and sorrow of heart the Church proceeded in this last but awful
duty towards you as a member. But Christ must be obeyed,
the rule which he has left us in his word be carefully attended
to, the glory of a Redeemer consulted, and appointed means for
keeping up the purity of and holiness of his house used. I
beseech you therefore in the bowels of mercy and tenderness
censure not the Church’s procedure, but rather smite upon your
own breast, and turn all your resentment against your Sin,
which is the alone cause of it. Tis sad, my Friend, to be cut
off from the Church of Christ, to be separated from the Com-
munion of her Saints on earth; but what is that compared with
a lasting separation from Christ himself, to be thrust away from
him, be bid depart into infinite torment, to spend a long forever
there amongst devils and damned spirits, where there is nothing
but weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? Awful thought
indeed, fearful sentence! Yet give me leave to tell you in all
86 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
love and faithfulness to your soul, this will be your case, if the
Lord does not graciously appear and heal your backslidings.
Be not deceived. Drunkards shall have no part in the kingdom
of God, 1 Corinthians 6. 10. Yea, the Lord has declared it
shall be bitter to the drinkers of it, [sazah 24. 9. May you be
humbling yourself at the foot of God, and be much seeking to
Him, that this Grace of Repentance may be wrought in you
by His blessed Spirit, that true evangelical sorrow may fill your
heart, and the fruit of Holiness appear in your life, that so the
dishonour which you have brought upon your profession may
be wiped off, the deep wound you have given to Christ be healed,
his grieved Church comforted, and your own precious soul saved
in the day of our Lord ’ (513. 14).
The days of Solemn Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, which
supported the Church in these times of ‘ heavie affliction,’ were
sometimes appointed for other emergencies, e.g. in 1744 ‘ on
account of several persons under concern, being more than
ordinarily buffeted by Satan, held down under Unbelief, and
driven even to the borders of Despair.’ ‘1745 Sept. 26th. On
account of the nation,’ the battle of Prestonpans having been
won by the Pretender only five days before. ‘ 1747. On account
of the Infectious Distemper (xxviii) amongst the cattle.” ‘ 1763.
On account of our deadness and declension and to pray for a
fresh downpouring of the Spirit both on Minister and people.’
* 1765. On account of the sad decay of vital religion ’ (513. 20, 29,
45, 60, 79, 80).
The thoroughness of Pastor James’s administration is further
exemplified by his keeping of the Church accounts. On his first
coming in 1742, he purchased a folio which he entitled The
Churches Booke as to its Stocke in Monte; and, fortunately for us,
who otherwise would know so little of the domestic side of this
Church’s life, he sees that every receipt and every expenditure
is entered. Here are a few items taken almost at random:
‘1743. Extraordinary expenses since Mr. Needham’s death.
Gave Mr. James for preaching Lord’s Day, 15s. For a bottle
of wine for Mr. James, 2s.; 1745. Paid Widow Slow attending
persons to be baptized and takeing care of their clothes, 2s. 6d.;
xxviii. This resulted in William Taylor being appointed Inspector of Cattle
at a wage of ss. a week, ‘ by reason of the Contagious Distemper being brought
into the Half Hundred of Hitchin amongst Horned Cattle ’ (Herts Q.S. Rolls
under 1749. Not calendared in Hardy).
THE BAPTISTS 87
1757. Gave Walter Field for seting the Psalms to Michaelmas,
2s. 6d.; 1758. Paid for a pare of Temple Spectacles for Thos.
Ashwood to repeete Sermonds, 1s. 6d.; 1769. Paid for a Mouse
Trap for the Vestry, 9d.; 1771. Paid Sister Dobbs for scouring
the cups and plats, 5s.; 1771. Paid Mr. James for a Psalm and
Him Book to lay in the Pulpet, 3s.’ (524).
The reference to the ‘ Him Book ’ reminds one that the last
two years of James’s ministry were clouded by a division in his
congregation upon the subject of singing. ‘The older members,
led by Richard Angell, one of the Deacons, would have liked to
have no singing at all: ‘ The tunes were too light and airy and
not fit to be used in the solemn service of God.’ But they could
not escape from the fact that the Baptists had been the first to
popularize the singing of English Hymns as part of public worship.
With Needham they had been able to come to terms. He
withdrew his proposal to introduce Keach’s Spiritual Melody,
containing near Three Hundred Sacred Hymns, and they, on their
side, consented to sing the New England Psalms. James, how-
ever, had a good voice and was a musician of some merit. As
early as 1754 he was hankering after a choir. ‘ This evening,’
he says in his diary, under December 2nd, ‘ several young women
met at my house to be instructed in singing. Some of them
performed well. Chose to have the men apart and women
apart, to cut off all reflections, and prevent such meetings being
a snare, as I doubt they have often been by both sexes meeting
together ’ (546.143). In 1771, being unable to endure the New
England Psalms any longer, he took his life in his hands and
supplied the congregation with attractively bound copies of
Isaac Watts’s Hymns (15). At once a great discord arose. The
second deacon, John Foster, sided with his pastor. There is
still preserved his well-thumbed and benoted copy of that inter-
esting treatise entitled Reasons for and against singing in Private
or Public Worship considered with Candor, wherein the Ground of
that Controverted Practice ts impartially laid open. David Rees,
1737.’ His notes and interjections in the margins show how
deeply he had pondered this problem. But Angell was irrecon-
cilable about these ‘human composures,’ and as an angel of
wrath he proved a host in himself, a most unheavenly host. ‘A
variety of incidental circumstances,’ as the Church-book expresses
it, ‘ operating in both parties (as is usual) produced many unbe-
coming expressions, conversations, letters, papers and disputes,
88 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
tending to the subversion of the Church, and destructive of the
peace of the whole congregation, as well as to the general grief
of the neighbouring Churches, and to the offence of the world ’
(513. 100-101).
The contention may be said to have killed the Pastor. He
was ‘seized with a threatening disorder which lay chiefly on
his spirits ’ (513.85). For a time he lingered, and then, ‘ on
Lord’s Day morning, August 22, 1773, his departed soul joined
the celestial choir.’ His death was as inspiring as his life. It
reminds one not a little of the latter end of those pious souls
whose lives and deaths he had himself chronicled in his Abstract
of the Gracious Dealings of God with several Eminent Christians
in thetr Conversion and Sufferings (525). ‘ A few days before,’
says his son, ‘ he became depressed and called for Sibbes’ Soul’s
Conflict, which, however, could not be found. When his deacon
Foster came to say farewell, he betrayed a very human shrinking:
** Ah, Mr. Foster, I have thought about death, I have read about
death, I have talked about death, and I have preached about
death; but now that I am ill and in my own apprehensions very
near death, I find that to be quite a different thing to what it
was to think about it, to read about it, to talk about it, or to
preach about it when I was well.” But in his latest moments
the spirit of adoption was upon him; and he frequently called
upon God under that endearing character, “‘ My Father, my
Father ’’; whilst the very last words he articulately spoke and
which he uttered with no small emphasis were these triumphant
expressions: “‘ Victory, Victory ” ’ (513. 154). May we not add
in Bunyan’s words, ‘ And all the trumpets sounded for him on
the other side.’
XIX
In her ‘state of widowhood,’ the Church received much
comfort from the ministerial abilities of one John Geard, a
student of the Bristol Academy (xxix); he was ‘a means under
God to keep the Auditory together, visibly blessed to some of
them for their souls’ good, and very useful to the whole church
for their great edification ’ (513.89). The first sermon he
preached to them was from Acts 19. 2: ‘ Have ye received the
xxix. The invitation came to him as he was spending his vacation in Corn-
wall. With the abounding energy that he possessed all his hfe, he had already
ridden 1,240 miles and preached 118 times 1n the space of six weeks (539).
E
I
|
J Hott nomen’
ar. o. —
“Lreemian sity
THE REV JOHN GEARD
From a painting by J Robinson
THE BAPTISTS 89
Holy Ghost?’ After six months’ trial of ‘ the gifts and graces
God hath been pleased to bestow on him,’ and after prayer and
fasting ‘to know God’s mind and will,’ the brethren besought
Geard ‘to take on you the Pastoral Office and oversight of the
Church as an Under Shepherd under the great Head of the
Church, for we cannot view it otherwise than to be the Lord’s
doings in sending you amongst us as an answer to prayer’
(513. 89). Their choice was undoubtedly inspired. ‘As a
preacher,’ said Edward Foster, ‘ his talents were not superior,
but as a Christian Minister he was a living epistle, known and
read of all men’(555.7). It was said by another: ‘I do not
believe there is a just man upon the earth that doeth good and
sinneth not; but I do believe there is not a person living with
fewer imperfections than John Geard’(555.7). He had a
healthy dislike of merely clever people and of text-splitters,
commentators and theologians in particular. In this he was one
with honest John Bunyan, whom in appearance he so closely
resembled. ‘ Once on a time,’ he used to say, ‘ Bunyan was
sitting with the Foster Brothers in their house at Preston when
someone asked him to explain that verse in Romans 8. 19,
“‘ For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
manifestation of the sons of God ’’; to which he made this
cautious and shrewd reply: “‘ All that I can say in answer to
that question is that the Scripture is wiser than I,’’ which was
as good as saying that he did not know the meaning of that
passage; and this was much wiser in him than it would have
been to have attempted to explain what he did not understand,
and thus darken counsel by words without knowledge ’ (548).
Geard’s strength also lay in his holy and unabashed simplicity ;
he knew that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
‘In the earlier part of my life,’ he writes in his Memoirs, ‘ I was
exceedingly harassed by Satanic temptations of a most dis-
tressing nature ’ (539). But these by the grace of God had long
since been trodden underfoot. In mind as in body he was
solid, robust, unshakable; in all times of calamity and unfaith
steadfast as a rock. He knew Him in whom he believed. His
God was no ‘stream of tendency, no supernaturalistic hypo-
thesis, no transcendental symbol or synthesis, but the Lord of
Hosts of the Old Testament.’ He would have no lot or part
with the suave doctrine of sufficing grace, so pleasant and pro-
Ppitious, as the Anglicans had found, to the frailty of men. Whilst
go THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
he remained their pastor, he and his people would follow the
footsteps of the Divine Ascetic who trod the winepress of the
wrath of God. It was this integrity of soul that won him the
respect and in time the affection of all. ‘He was a most affec-
tionate pastor,’ said one who knew him well, ‘ living in the love
of both old and young, and held in high esteem by all, whether
Churchmen or Dissenters.’ His own people at first feared, and
afterwards loved, him far too well to offend. The cases of
discipline in his time are few: Susanna Lane, ‘ for imprudent
behaviour with another woman’s husband’; Lydia Lightfoot,
‘for uncleanness’; Caleb Pitt, ‘for his uncharitableness ’;
William Bunyan, for ‘ neglecting the means of grace ’ (513. 134,
144, 210).
With the Anglicans he did have an occasional, if not an
annual, brush over tithe and Church rates, for the old antagonism
was not so much dead as sleeping. ‘The Church by law estab-
lished could still be very provoking, e.g. in 1793, when, in a
spirit of infinite condescension, Convocation issued an additional
prayer, asking the Almighty ‘to show pity to those who have
the misfortune to Dissent from us.” ‘ Where Dissent in religion
is,” said Archbishop Sandys, ‘there can hardly be consent in
love.’ But in the end Geard wore these prejudices down. Long
before the close of his pastorate of fifty-five years he was looked
up to as the moral and ceremonial leader of the parish. It was
he who organized petitions, reformed abuses, and called the
united congregations to prayer in times of peril. ‘The Church-
book in his day is almost a register of local and national affairs.
There are solemn days, fast days, or thanksgiving days: in 1778
‘for the American War which still continues’; in 1780 ‘ on
account of the war with France, Spain and America’; in 1780
* on account of the state of the nation and the situation of religion
which are truly calamitous and alarming’; in 1788 ‘for the
centenary of the Glorious Revolution which the Divine Providence
effected in the year 1688, in consequence of which it is that
Protestant Dissenters enjoy all their legal liberties and privi-
leges * (xxx); in 1788 ‘ on account of the situation of our beloved
Sovereign, King George the Third, whose circumstances are
extremely melancholy ’ (xxxi); in 1789, July 23, ‘ with a par-
xxx. In his diary and in his Memoirs Geard 1s constantly praising God for
the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and pitching into those ‘ Royal rascals,’ as he
calls Charles and James the Second (539, 40).
xxxi. He had become insane.
THE BAPTISTS gr
ticular view to the approaching harvest, it having rained with
little comparative intermission for above five weeks together ’;
in 1789 ‘honestly and faithfully to remonstrate against the
infamous practice of giving largesse at the close of harvest to
farm labourers, who prostitute this money in the general to the
most shameless intemperance ’; in 1801 ‘on account not only
of the calamitous war in which we are still engaged but of the
increased dearness of the necessaries of life, the quartern loaf
having risen to 1s. 8d.’; in 1805 ‘ on account of an important
victory off cape Trafalgar’; in 1811 ‘to protest against Lord
Sidmouth’s Bill, which would greatly infringe the rights and
liberties of Protestant Dissenters ’ (xxxii) (513. 108, 113, 118, 130,
147, 149, 153, 202, 218, 238). One is the more glad to observe
this serious concern of the Church with secular affairs, because
the Nonconformists as a body have been too often accused of
shutting themselves up in their stuffy little chapels—a_ particular
people alone with their particular God—and of leaving the world
at large to go to the Devil. In Hitchin, at any rate in Geard’s
day, it was not so.
XX
In the life of the Church, no less than that of the parish,
Geard brought the same breadth of sympathy to bear. It was
his doing that Salem Chapel in 1776 joined that federation of
Baptist Churches known as the Eastern Association (513. 106).
‘Paid Mr. Geard’s Expences at the Sosiation, ros.’ (524). It
was his large outlook that made the congregation redouble its
efforts for missionary work. In 1793 they were supporting ‘a
black Baptist missionary of exemplary character’ who was
propagating the Gospel and counteracting the iniquitous slave
trade in Sierra Leone. The next year they were supporting
two other missionaries who were ‘ spreading the gospel amongst
the heathen of Indostan ’ (xxxiii). In 1798 they collected £23
for those twenty-nine missionaries who were setting sail for the
Pacific in a vessel purchased by the Society as a missionary ship.
xxxi1. Within a space of forty-eight hours the petitions of 600 congregations
were drawn up, signed and presented to the House of Lords. Their Lordships
were so alarmed at the hornet’s nest they had raised that the Bill was promptly
rejected.
; xxxiu1. In 1813 they paid one guinea ‘to Mr Eade’s Clark for drawing up
@ petition to Parliament for permission to send mussions to India without
control ’ (524).
92 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
But the ‘ poor heathen inhabitants of those remote countries,’
for whom the brethren here had prayed and stinted themselves
and saved, remained in heathen darkness still, for the good ship
Duff was captured by a French privateer off the South American
coast (513. 169, 175, 195).
In further extension of Church work, a Sunday School was
founded in 1812, though that was due not so much to his own
labours as to those of his sister-in-law, Ann Bradley (xxxiv).
His task was to overcome the scruples of the members, which
proved no easy matter. But the task which tried Geard to the
uttermost was that which had killed his predecessor, namely, to
get his untuneful brethren to sing. He was himself possessed
of a resonant bass voice and rejoiced to sing; but there was still
Richard Angell to reckon with and those ‘ caterwauling saints,’
as the pastor called them, who would only mew the Psalms. At
last, however, by persuading the pastors of three neighbouring
churches to sit in judgment upon their differences, and to hear
charges and counter-charges from 8 o’clock in the morning
to 11 o’clock at night, the pastor got Angell expelled from
the office of deacon and the use of Watts’s Hymns approved
(513. 99-104). For a long time, however, Angell’s party was
strong enough to stipulate that only one tune should be allowed,
and that was made to do duty for every kind of hymn, be it of
long or short or common metre. It must have required some
ingenuity to adapt it with any degree of satisfaction to a sensitive
ear. But, whatever the difficulties, there was usually some
brother or sister who could bring the congregation through.
Drawing upon his own memories, a local pastor, the Rev. R. W.
Jackson, has shown how it could be done: * Whilst the congre-
gation was floundering amid the extra syllables, he would halt
in the middle of a line and exclaim, ‘‘ Pucker it in, friends!’’
and they puckered it in.’
Having reasoned his people out of this absurdity, Geard
introduced a variety of tunes adapted to the varying measures
of the hymns. But in a rash hour a tune was tried which
demanded the repetition of one line in each stanza. This was
too much for some of the old supporters of the place, who
inveighed in resolute terms against an innovation so alarming.
xxxiv. An account of this good woman will be included in the volume of
Aittchsen Worthes, together with extracts from the diary and register which she
kept in connection with the school (542).
THE BAPTISTS 93
They even threatened to walk out of the chapel if any repeating
tune were sung. It was contrary, they declared, to the whole
tenor of Scripture, which nowhere sanctioned a repetition. But
that was where they were wrong. Admitting the propriety of
referring everything if possible to the authority of the Scriptures,
and having secured the adherence of the objectors to this prin-
ciple, the pastor proceeded to prove that repetition was sanctioned
in the Bible. To their confusion, he quoted fFeremiah 22. 29:
‘O Earth, Earth, Earth, hear the word of the Lord.’ The proof
was deemed satisfactory, and those who had been content to sing
short metre to a long-metre tune became in time habitual, if
not willing, listeners to better-adapted and more skilfully
arranged compositions. Not unlikely the part they themselves
took in those more elaborate singings served in some measure
to prevent anyone being overwhelmed with the mere sensual
gratifications occasioned from music as a science and an art (xxxv).
Apart from this one quarrel, and some ‘ shakings of the head ’”
over the introduction of Lessons or Readings from the Scriptures
in the Sunday services, there was nothing but concord and
affection between the pastor and his flock. Over the lapse of a
hundred years there lingers a whimsical story which shows how
his people would vie with one another to do him kindness. One
of them, it seems, went on Michaelmas Day into the market,
bought the biggest goose he could find, and left it with his own
and the season’s compliments at the minister’s house. But
Geard’s housekeeper, like a careful woman, had already procured
a goose. She told her master so. They considered the problem
together. At last he said to Betty: ‘ You and I really cannot
eat two geese, and, much as I dislike the idea, I think you must
take the gift goose into the market and sell it for what it will
bring.’ She did so. Half an hour later there was a knock at
the door. It was another member of the congregation holding
the very same goose. ‘I chose this fine bird in the market.
Will you please ask Mr. Geard to accept it with my very best
wishes?’ A still more difficult interview ensued between Betty
and her master, but the same decision was taken. An hour
later another knock at the door; another member of the con-
gregation; the same magnificent goose. ‘ Betty,’ roared the old
minister as soon as the door was shut, ‘ take it away in God’s
xxxv. This account is taken almost iz:teratum from the description of the
controversy which Geard gave to William Paxton of St. Neots (539).
94 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
name and put it in the larder. It is quite clear tome now. The
Lord has predestined us to have this goose ’ (576).
Clear in mind, unclouded in faith, hale and hearty in body—
smoking his pipe (xxxvi) and eating goose-pie to the end—the
old minister laboured on to his eighty-second year, having never,
he said, been laid aside by illness for a single Sabbath. Another
seven years he lasted after his resignation, with neither labour
nor sorrow; and then, on November 27, 1838, was interred in
the burial-ground where he had buried more than eight hundred
of his people. One may say of him what he had said of Dr.
John Gill, 1697-1771: ‘ When he died, there was a great man
fell in Israel ’ (539.89). ‘The whole parish mourned for him as
one man and followed him to his grave (574. 35).
XXI
Wilson, Needham, James, Geard—there, indeed, is an apos-
tolical succession of which any Church might be proud. Between
them they held the pastorate for one hundred and fifty-four years,
and those the longest, most difficult years of all. It may be that
they loom larger to our view because of the intervening mist of
time. But somehow the ten ministers who followed them at
short intervals in the hundred years from 1831 to the present
time seem men of a different stature. As one of them observed
in referring to the long history of Salem Chapel: ‘ My prede-
cessors were no ordinary men. One might well shrink from the
attempt to continue that history, and to act worthy of those
traditions, were it not for the fact that behind all visible instru-
ments and agents the Eternal, Invisible God will carry on and
complete His own most glorious work.’ In this chapter, which
has already outrun its appointed length, we cannot dwell upon
the devoted work of these recent pastors. It is almost of living
memory, and the story may be read at large in The History of
Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, written for its 250th Anniversary
by the Reverend James McCleery, pastor from 1918-1926.
There are a few outstanding events, however, which must be
chronicled here. In 1844, during the pastorate of John Broad
(who sacrificed a business yielding £700 a year to serve God on
xxxvi. Francis Lucas, who greatly admired him, says: ‘He was a great
smoker, and used every now and then as he smoked to take a bite of an apple.
He always had one by him when he took his pipe.’
THE REV. JOHN BROAD
From a drawing by Samuel 1 eae
THE BAPTISTS 95
a stipend of £80), the present chapel was built at a cost of
£2,300 (552). Its Italianesque front gave great offence to some
of the older members; it was, they said, as contrary to the
teaching and example of Bunyan as was the Golden Calf to that
of Moses. But to the majority of those who worshipped there
it was a source of pride and satisfaction to have this imposing
structure, not lurking in a back lane like the old chapel as if
afraid of being seen, but conforming and adding no little dignity
to the King’s highway. Broad looked upon his own creation
with such joy that he could hardly tear himself away. All the
Sunday through he would sit there, and take his meals there too,
lest ‘ going out into the world he should lose touch with the
atmosphere of devotion ’ (576). The services in his time were
most revivalistic. Pastor and people were frequently in floods
of tears. There were inquiries after every service, testimonies
openly delivered, and frequent professions of faith. George
Short, 1858-1868, who succeeded John Broad (xxxvi1), erected
a minister’s house, did something ‘ to prevent the draught and
mitigate the cold’ in the new chapel, and, ‘ after mature con-
sideration,’ introduced The New Baptist Hymn Book, with an
organ to play the tunes (574. 43-5). During the ministry of
John Aldis, 1868-1877, six members were set apart to form a
daughter Church in the Walsworth Road for those who lived in
that distant part of the parish. It was also resolved to build a
Bunyan Chapel at Preston, ‘ to be worked as a preaching station
in connection with the parent church’ (574. 45-7). ‘Thomas
Williams, in the course of his short ministry, 1890-1893, did
much to improve the chapel. Nearly £2,000 was spent on the
enlargement of the organ, the provision of a new pulpit, and a
heating and ventilating apparatus (574. 51-2). In 1919 the 250th
anniversary of the Church was celebrated, and by a curious
coincidence the members that year were found to number
exactly 250(575). In 1925 some new model schools and an
assembly hall were added at a cost of £5,000 in memory of those
members of the Church who fell in the Great War and as a
xxxvu. It 1s amusing to notice that this Short who succeeded Broad added
to the oddity by marrying a Square. On the last event this epigram was penned
by Lawson Thompson of Hitchin .—
‘A deed surpassing human thought,
This man to do could dare;
He brought her round and made her Short
had been long Miss Square.’
96 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
thank-offering on the part of the family of George Wagstaff
Russell, a deacon of the Church, and a superintendent of the
Sunday School, for over forty years.
It has been the habit of those few historians who have con-
descended to notice the Dissenters to stress ‘ their rigorous and
moral strictness, their subjugation of sense and appetite, their
coldness to every element in worship external to the believer’s
own soul, their dogma unyielding as cast iron.’ They would
appear to have noticed nothing more. But it is not difficult to
discover another side. Out of their protesting and dissenting,
as anyone with eyes may see, they have developed a constructive
Christianity full of fervour and loving-kindness, a religion that
satisfies the intellect and marches with the times. Recognizing
that the things they once stood for have by their efforts been
merged into the spiritual inheritance of man, they have altered
the line of battle. No longer do they dissent, no longer protest
against the ‘ unyielding dogma’ of an Established Church, but
with that Church and with all true Churches they march as in
a common cause against the forces of Mammon, Unrighteousness
and Infidelity. Here is a battlefield after a Puritan’s own heart.
In a world still indifferent, if not hostile, to plant once more the
standard of Jesus Christ, and in His holy name and by the
invincible sign of His cross at last to overcome.
Denne, Hobson, Bunyan, Holcroft, Wilson, Needham, James,
Geard—all are departed. They fought a good fight. They kept
the faith. They are with God. But ‘the Lord of Hosts is with
us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.’ Those who are baptized
with the baptism that these men of Hitchin were baptized with
need never be afraid, for as one of their own pastors finely said:
‘We believe in the mighty energy of God’s truth, in the divine
efficacy of Christ’s work, in the presence and power of the
Eternal Spirit to apply both the truth and the work to the hearts
and consciences of men.’
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS (1)
I
=——IHE history of Congregationalism or
fo—S4)| Independency in Hitchin may be said
We@eaiito begin with Katherine Chidley, the
<n mother of that Samuel Chidley who in
awe} the Commonwealth became Lord of
@i Hitchin Manor (see Vol. I, pp. 212-
7221). She herself dwelt sometimes at
Bow Lane in London, sometimes with
i} her son at Hitchin, and sometimes,
‘being hunted by the Bishop’s blood-
hounds,’ she found it convenient to have no fixed abode.
In 1641 she published a remarkable pamphlet of 82 pages
entitled The justification of the Independant Churches of Christ:
briefly declaring that the Congregations of the Saints ought not
to have dependency in Government upon any other or direction
zn worship from any other, than their Head and Lawgtver
(580). This apologia, she modestly explains, ‘is not laid
down in a Schollerick way, but by the plaine truth of the
Holy Scripture.” It is, nevertheless, a keen, vigorous and
amusing piece of writing. Perhaps she was not quite so
modest as her preface would suggest. Though a woman and
a lay person, she 1s confident of her capacity to dogmatize
on these high matters: ‘A layman fearing God is much
more fit to understand the Holy Scripture than a proud and
arrogant priest, yea than the Bishop himselfe, be hee never
so great and glittering in all his Pontificals.’ With one wave of
her pen she dismisses all ‘ hireling priests,’ and all that hierarchy
in authority over them. She will not hear of ‘ Arch-Bishops,
Diocesan-Bishops, Deanes, Prebends and the rest of that rabble;
they have a King over them which is the Angell of the Bottom-
lesse pit, who is said to be the great red Dragon, the Devill.’
What with their ‘ altars and images, ceremonies, book-worship,
1. ‘The author desires to acknowledge the assistance given by Dr. Albert
Peel, M.A., Editor of the Transactzons of the Congregational Historical Society,
who kindly read and revised this chapter 1n 1ts manuscript form. The author
has received most generous assistance also from Mr. Halley Stewart of Harpen-
den, who has made a particular study of the history of the Hertfordshire
Independent Churches.
VOL, II. G
98 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
censures, citations, canons, and excommunications they are
dependent on Councills, synods and churches—even it seems
upon the Church of Rome; whereas we are Independent and are
resolved to stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ hath set us.’
She is disposed to admit ‘ that all the armies that belonge to a
kingdome ought to be under the banner of their owne king’;
but so far as the ‘ particular Congregations of Christ’ are con-
cerned, ‘ they are to be guided only by the Lawes of their owne
Captain Christ, who rideth before them with his garments dipt
in blood, and they follow after him riding upon white horses.’
Therefore, she declares, in summing up the whole matter, ‘ it
is not only lawfull, but the duty of all those who are informed
of the evills of the Church of England to separate themselves
from them, and such as doe adhere unto them, and set up true
churches of their owne.’
Not all men saw their duty as clearly as Katherine Chidley.
Independents there were, of course, in hundreds at Hitchin in
the Civil War; it was the ruling faction in Cromwell’s Army.
But the orthodox divines who preached by order of Parliament
at St. Mary’s, and Thomas Kidner, who through the Common-
wealth laboured there as vicar, were so nearly Independent in
their views that it seemed needless ‘ to set up a true church of
their owne.’ As Katherine Chidley scornfully put it, they were
content to be ‘ semi-separates,’ biding their time and hoping, soon
or late, to make the priestly and aristocratic system of the old
Church of England conform to their new Congregational way.
But that was not to be. In 1655 they had raised {11 4s. 11d.
in Hitchin ‘ for their poor brethren the Protestants of Piedmont,’
little guessing how soon they, too, would be hunted down by
the ‘ Bishop’s bloodhounds’ for their own religious opinions.
At the Savoy Conference of Congregational Churches in 1658
they had formulated a declaration of faith, ‘a great and special
work of the Holy Ghost,’ which was to restore to England the
pure and primitive ordinance of Jesus Christ. But it was the
impure King and the deformed, degenerate Church of England,
with her Primate and prelates and hireling priests, that were to
be restored, and it was they themselves who were to be driven
out of their promised land into a howling wilderness of per-
secution.
SSgI-o691 ‘ASNOH-DNILIAN. LaaULS NOVA GIO JHL
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS _ gg
II
In the preceding chapter we have told the story of that per-
secution in some detail, and, as the Hitchin Independents of
that early period were almost of one communion with the Baptists,
we do not purpose to tell it over again. ‘Those few who endured
to the end emerged triumphant from the ordeal, for they had
proved the truth of what Paul Hobson, their chaplain in the
Civil War, had said: ‘ Let men goe on to revile and abuse you,
and study names of Factious and Independents and the like to
make you odious. No matter. Christ assists you and Christ
hath names full of love and sweetness for you ’ (504. 43). ‘Too
few as yet to form a church of their own, they had from the
first days of the persecution united themselves for worship with
the Baptists; the more willingly because Holcroft, Oddy, Lock,
Waite and Beare, who ministered to that body, were all Inde-
pendent in their views.
In spite of their ‘ love and sweetness,’ however, the uniting
Was not in any sense a union; rather the reverse. As early as
1669 the little group of Independents, on some scruple of con-
science, withdrew themselves from their Baptist brethren; and
it needed a powerful protest from John Owen, the Independent
leader in London, to make them reunite. They must, as he
pointed out, be loyal to their own declarations. Clause XXIV
of the Savoy Declaration of 1658, which he had helped to draw
up, had been explicit on this point: ‘ Saints living in one city or
town ought rather to join in one church for their mutual strength-
ening and edification than to set up many distinct societies.’
As the Baptist Church at Hitchin was based on the principle
of ‘open-communion,’ and allowed ‘eas and satisfaction to
them that differ from us in point of Baptism,’ Owen could not
see why these ‘ Brethren and Companions in Tribulation ’ should
split asunder. Let them study to dwell with one another in
peace and concord, ‘ and in the Kingdom and patience of our
Lord Jesus Christ ’ (513. 10).
In 1677, however, when the Hitchin Baptists chose a pastor
of their own persuasion, the little handful of Independents,
Brothers Wilkinson, Sheppard, and Cooper, and Sisters Jackson
and Flindall, ‘ desired for their better edification to be dismissed
to the Church of Christ about Cambridge,’ in the charge of
Francis Holcroft, who had been their stay and comfort for so
100 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
many years (632.645). A letter proposing reconciliation which
followed them from Hitchin the next year was left unanswered.
Undoubtedly these early Independents were difficult to please.
Too conscious, perhaps, of their high calling, they would not
exist in a state of dependence on any other Church. Not even
with the Saints at Cambridge were they able to find ‘ eas and
satisfaction.’
By the year 1687 they had decided to try another change,
and join themselves to ‘the church in and about Hertford
belonging to Mr. Haworth,’ a man distinguished not only for his
piety but for his proficiency in the three learned languages
Hebrew, Latin and Greek (606.2.300). The distance was
sixteen miles, but they professed themselves willing to ‘ sit
down ’ with his congregation, walking or riding there as best
they could. ‘The Hertford Church offered to meet them occa-
sionally half-way at Bragbury End, and the pastor, on his part,
agreed to preach to them at Hitchin once a month (581). For
this purpose, as they had no meeting-place of their own, they
were driven to approach the Baptist brethren whom they had
deserted, and ask for the use of their barn: ‘ This we propound
to you for love and peace sake, also being sensible that to set
up another meeting by ourselves would look ill and be a means
of giving occasion for reproach and might be to the dishonour
of God.’ On their side the Baptists were cautious; they agreed
to lend the barn, but, they added, ‘if ever we shall find just
cause to alter our minds, we will let you know of it ’ (513).
Unhappily the cause was not long in coming, for the Inde-
pendents were caught angling for souls to which they were not
entitled. ‘That the souls of the ungodly should be won by
Haworth and his people was all to the glory of God, but that
the souls of Baptist members should be won over was quite
another thing. ‘This was an occasion of reproach. If God was
not dishonoured, they were. ‘They accordingly cancelled the
agreement, and made it as difficult as they could for those
members who had allowed themselves to be subverted in their
own particular barn: ‘ 1688. Bro. Edward Hitchin, and afterwards
Bro. Henry Fuller, desired of the church a dismission unto the
church walking with Mr. Hayward (sic). Their reasons being
considered, the church refused, judging them not a suffisent
ground. Afterwards, both these was received by Mr. Hayworth
and part of the people or church to whom he belongeth at
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS IOI
Hitching, without the consent of the church with hume [whom]
they walked ’ (513).
IiI
For the next three years the Independents met where they
could. In summer, on the village green at Preston, then known
as Cromwell’s Green. In winter, either at Widow Heath’s
cottage in the same hamlet, which had been licensed in 1672,
or in the farmhouse of John Harper at Maiden Croft, which
was licensed in 1689. Haworth was not able to be with them
often, for he was at this period much occupied with spiritual
conflict in the parish where he lived. ‘ Let me engage you,’
he implores his Church, ‘ night and day to pray for the poor
town of Hertford, which now for a long time hath been a nest
of error, and where Satan hath his seat ’ (632. 537). In his
stead they were fortunate enough to have for preacher one
Joseph Hussey, who since 1683 had been chaplain to Sir Jonathan
Keate at the Hoo (632. 649). In his preaching diary he refers
to himself as ‘ sometime pastor of Maidencroft Meeting,’ which
proves that, though still attached to the Hertford Church, the
Hitchin people preserved a certain local independence. In 1688
Hussey, who was not an authorized minister, submitted himself
for ordination, and wrote in his diary afterwards a lively account
of the ordeal (584). ‘I was solemnly ordained,’ he says, ‘ with
Examinations, Confessions, Fastings and Prayer and Imposition
of Hands of the Presbytery at Dr. Annesley’s house in Spittle
Fields London, even while the Prince of Orange, afterwards
King William, was under sail for England. I disputed with the
doctors in the defence of a thesis upon a question given to me
in the Popish controversie.” On this burning question of the
day he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his examiners:
‘We whose names are underwritten do testify concerning Mr.
Joseph Hussey that under our personal knowledge he is an
ordained minister of the Gospel, whose natural parts, acquired
learning, soundness in the faith, Holiness of Life, and all Minis-
teriall abilities are so commendable that we groundedly hope for
God’s blessing upon his Ministry for the conversion and edifica-
tion of Souls wheresoever God shall employ him.’ This is
signed by five only of the six examiners. The sixth was a
trimmer. The Prince of Orange had set sail, and he intended
to wait and see which way the wind blew. ‘ The sixth examiner,’
102 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
observes Hussey, ‘ was shie because of the cloudiness of the
Times, and would neither subscribe the Examination nor be
known to me ’ (584).
At last, in 1690, the Hitchin Independents resolved to have
a chapel of their own. It was only three years since they
admitted to the Baptists that ‘to set up another meeting by
ourselves would look ill’; but things had happened since then,
and, above all, the Toleration Act had been passed.
Purchasing from Alice Bonfield a small piece of orchard in
Dead Street, afterwards known as Back Street, being the north-
eastern portion of the present chapel ground, they built on its
site the place of worship depicted in the forefront of this chapter.
The certificate of registration under the Act, dated April 26,
1690, was taken out in the name of George Wilkinson, cord-
wainer, who, with Thomas Hitchin, brewer, were the first trustees
of the property (632.649). The following day Hussey preached
the opening sermon, recording in his diary: ‘I preached at
Hitchin at the new Meeting House, Lord’s Day in the afternoon,
April 27. Text. Fohn 8. 36: ‘‘ If the Son therefore shall make
you free ye shall be free indeed.” ’ Once a month Hussey
continued to exhort them in sermons subsequently printed,
which can be read not without profit at this present day, together
with a work of his own on the office of preaching, which is even
more seasonable now than when it first appeared. In this he
shows himself fully conscious of his high calling. Ministers,
he holds, are stewards of God and of the mysteries of God.
Upstart and self-created preachers are not to be endured. But
let the trained Ministers take heed they set up no wisdom of
their own. It is only the foolishness of preaching which can save
a world whose wisdom knows not God. Above all, let them
beware of the lust of eloquence. It is easier to play the orator
than perform the work of a Divine. ‘ As for me,’ he concludes,
‘I would choose rather to come in plainness of speech to the
ears of men, than in the enticing words of Man’s wisdom ’ (585).
IV
In its third year the chapel witnessed something in the nature
of a miracle, which brought the Back Street Meeting into sudden
notoriety, and caused no little stir outside in the religious world.
The facts, which were attested with unusual care at the time,
~~~. ,
The Revrad Uefa Soukiig.
fe he & Mi. ‘
4, UM, 4 ° SIUM ASO be £6 hitts al iy Fis le te her SOC |
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 103
are these. In service as a shepherd at a farm occupied by a
Mrs. Dermer, at Offley, near Hitchin, there lived one David
Wright, an unfortunate young man who for fifteen years had
been plagued—almost eaten up, says one account—with the
King’s Evil or scrofula, and could not walk without crutches.
As a boy he had been touched by Charles II, but had become
steadily worse; the running sores and ulcers from which he
suffered caused him to keep his bed for weeks together. ‘Those
who lived at the farm with him said that his mind was just as
much diseased as his body, ‘ being not only immoral and profane
but atheistical.” On these accounts the good woman at the
farm had been unwilling at first to hire him; but he had vowed
to reform and had promised to go with her on Sundays to the
Back Street Meeting, where she and her sons attended. This
vow, like many others, he had disregarded; but, hearing that
there was to be a special preacher on Wednesday, November 2gth,
he ‘ was suddenly fixed in his mind to go.’ The sores were
worse than ever that evening. He found himself unable to keep
up with his companions, and once or twice turned back. When
at last he arrived at the meeting he climbed up into the gallery
and sat down utterly exhausted. In spite of this, his companions
noticed that he behaved more decently than usual and was very
attentive to the prayer. But it was the sermon preached by
Thomas Coles, the pastor of Needingworth, that moved him
most of all. As if he divined Wright’s malady, the minister
took his text from one of our Lord’s miraculous cures. He dwelt
especially on faith as the one thing needful for the reception of
the healing power. ‘ If the same degree of faith were exercised
in our day,’ he exclaimed, ‘ I doubt not but the like effects would
be produced.” Whereupon Wright leapt to his feet and cried
out, ‘I believe, and I am cured body and soul.’ It was true.
The sores that had been so swollen had become mere scars.
His pain and his lameness had left him. He went home, as
his companions said, ‘ leaping and praising God and admiring
His grace and goodness to him all the way; and so he continued
almost all the night, adoring the grace and love of God to so
vile a sinner. Nor was he troubled with the evil any more.’
A full statement was written down at the time and signed by
Sleep Dermer and Thomas Dermer, the sons of Mrs. Dermer,
and Thomas Child and Joseph Morgan, two labourers on the
farm: ‘ We whose names are hereunto subscribed do attest and
104 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
declare, that, living in the same family with David Wright, we
were ear and eye witnesses of the truth of the foregoing par-
ticulars concerning him.’ Edward Hitchin, a leading member
of the meeting, compiled another account which was printed in
Turner’s Remarkable Providences and Aldridge’s Prevalency of
Prayer (587; 593). ‘ The change that is upon his soul,’ observes
Hitchin, ‘is more remarkable than the cure of his body. To
see such a sinful and grossly ignorant man so suddenly shine in
grace, blessing and praising God, and he who knew nothing one
hour to speak the next of Christ, was an astonishment to all who
heard him’ (586). Apparently Wright ‘still remained in this
admirable frame of heart.’ ‘ He was so remarkable for his piety,’
said Daniel Joyner, another member of the meeting, ‘ that people
used to get round him in the chapel on a Sabbath-day on purpose
to hear his conversation ’ (607. 448). He also mentions ‘a kind
of verse that was made on this great convert,’ the divinity of
which is good whatever may be thought of the poetry. Alluding
to the time of Wright’s going to hear Mr. Coles, and that of his
return home, together with the change that had taken place in
the interim, the lines run thus :—
f. o.hlehCUle™Cte~C~«Setstéis«C@D”SM anid Writ
Went in the day and went 1n the dark;
He came back 1n the night
And came back 1m the light.’
When it was noised abroad how ‘this poor, diseased, blas-
phemous wretch was become an eminent Christian,’ people
from near and far ‘ went into the field where he was used to
tend sheep, in order to satisfy themselves respecting the truth
of the report. Some gentry were known to go in their coaches,
chiefly to gratify their curiosity concerning this man’s bodily
cure: but he always told them that he must begin with that of
his soul, which was by far the greater; and then he would relate
what a vile sinner he had been, and how great a change the
grace of God had made in his heart and life.” Amongst those
who went to converse with Wright, says Isaac James, was one
Ralph Radcliffe, ‘a sinful man and notorious for his profanity.’
‘Are you the man that Coles converted?’ asked this Hitchin
squire. ‘ No,’ replied Wright, ‘ Coles did not convert me; it
was Jesus Christ that converted me, and if you, Sir, are not
interested in him, you are in a sad case.’ Upon which the
Squire is said ‘ to have gone grumbling away ” (607. 448).
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 105
V
It was no doubt the reputation won by Wright’s miraculous
healing which prompted the Back Street Independents to dignify
themselves into a church. For some time past they had chafed
at being a mere offshoot of the Hertford Church. Since 1691,
when Hussey was called to the Presbyterian Church at Cam-
bridge, they had been in difficulties about preachers. As they
chose but rarely to ‘ sit down’ with the brethren at Hertford,
Haworth chose but rarely to ‘sit down’ with them. And
extraordinary preachers were an extraordinary expense. They
had a chapel; they had a following; the Holy Spirit had but
recently descended in their midst. Why should they not separate
themselves from Hertford and set up a church of their own? It
was done accordingly.
In 1694, William Terry, formerly pastor at Hastings, became
pastor of the Independent Church meeting in Back Street,
Hitchin (632. 650). But it was not done with any ‘ eas or satis-
faction ’; for when they came to settle the covenant for the new
Church it was found that the brethren held different views about
the sacramental value and saving grace of infant baptism. A
considerable minority, who preferred Haworth’s teaching on this
burning question, decided to remain in communion with the
Hertford Church. Haworth himself declined to recognize those
who had, as he phrased it, ‘ gone off with Mr. Terry.’ ‘To the
consternation of this so-called pastor, Haworth became suddenly
active in the Hitchin district, and ‘ brought off ’ several brothers
and sisters who were still halting between the two opinions.
One may read their names, their testimonies and their back-
slidings in the Hertford book, which was kept with little system
by Haworth himself, but very efficiently by John Guyse, who
succeeded him in 1705 (581). In that year there were as many
as forty-seven members recorded from the Hitchin district;
fifteen from Hitchin itself, eleven from Offley, five from Preston,
four from Ippollitts, three from King’s Walden, two from
Ickleford, two from Baldock, two from Graveley, two from
Cockernhoe, and one from Lilley. It is evident that Guyse was
a most devoted pastor. With an affection that never flags he
watches over each child of God committed to his charge from
its cradle to its grave. Not even then does he forsake them.
The memory of the just is not allowed to fail. Page by page in
106 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
the Church-book he describes in touching sentences the trium-
phant end of such as died in the Lord: ‘ enjoyed much sweet
communion with Christ and a full assurance to the end ’; ‘ dyed
with strong faith and relyance’; ‘ dyed with great composure,
faith, hope and patience ’; ‘ dyed in holy resignation to the will
of God ’; ‘ dyed trusting in Christ and his promises.’ Only once
is he driven for truth’s sake to write in another vein: ‘ she died,’
he says of one member, ‘ under a cloud in her own soul.’ In
matters of discipline he was perhaps too lenient. Brother
Greenhill, who had ‘ withdrawn himself for no other reason but
because the Trustees had not provided him a seat to his mind,’
was mildly besought to ‘ consider in his own soul the evil of
such a spirit.’ Brother Thorowgood, formerly a member of
the Hitchin Baptist Church, who ‘ declared that he cannot have
any further communion with the church because we have allowed
a Presbyterian to have occasional communion with us,’ was
dismissed with a blessing unaccompanied by any admonition for
lack of Christian charity. A sister, too recently married, being
* accused of an untimely child,’ is prayed over with all tenderness
and compassion as though an untoward accident had befallen
her, and restored at the first moment to the bosom of the
Church (581; 619).
On occasion, however, and especially where a group of
members was concerned, Guyse could be firm enough. Here is
his answer to those Hitchin members who were getting tired
of trudging over to Hertford every Sunday and who felt that
he should come to them: ‘1705. Agreed at a general church
meeting held at Hertford on July 11 that our brethren in and
about Hitchin shall not demand or insist that the pastor of this
church shall at any time be obliged to go over to them either to
preach or to administer the Lord’s Supper among them, and
that they shall as much as in them lies fill up their places in the
seat of the church at Hertford till the Lord shall open up a
way for them to go off from this body.’ The next entry deals
with the same subject but in stronger terms: ‘ Sept. 27, 1705.
Agreed at a general meeting that we in and about Hertford (being
the proper seat of the church) will by no means suffer ourselves
to be entangled with the concerns of our brethren in and about
Hitchin, but shall always act in reference to their affairs according
to the best light it shall please the great Prophet of the church
to give us; and if at any time our conduct in such actings should
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 107
be attacked, and attempts thereon should be made to beget
misunderstandings and controversies among us, we unanimously
agree by the Grace of Christ to quench such motions in their
first beginnings, looking upon them as a direct breach of the
comfort, peace and good order of the church, and upon the
persons that shall make them as contentious, and contrary to
the primitive custom of the churches of God ’ (581).
The breach was still further widened in 1707, because the
pastor, though he would not ‘ sit down’ with the brethren at
Hitchin, was resolved to sit in judgment on their private lives:
‘ Ordered that a letter be written to our brethren in and about
Hitchin to require an account with proper evidence of the
misdemeanours of several persons who do or have lived there-
abouts, and are charged with disorderly walking, and furthermore
to quicken them to their duty of coming to the ordinance and
filling up their places amongst us.’ Eventually some sort of
evidence was procured, and the Hertford Church, carrying it
with a high hand, ‘ excommunicated the six persons whose names
and crimes are as followeth: John Edmunds for drunkenness and
ill language; John Hawkins for basely abusing his wife by words
and blows; Mary Gutteridge for fornication and other ill-carriage ;
Ann Phillar for forsaking public worship and for swearing;
Richard Upton for privately stealing of wood; and Robert Patey
for a notorious cheat in secretly going off with a considerable
sum of money, defrauding his creditors, and deserting his wife
and children ’ (11).
This was followed up by a letter to the Hitchin brethren
*‘ persuading them to, and proposing terms for, a union with the
brethren that went off with Mr. Terry.’ They were evidently
weary of the Hertford and Hitchin connection, and wished to
speed those who were neither pleased to stay nor willing to
depart. The Hitchin Independents, however, were not to be
hurried. They meant to propound their own terms and to do
so at their own convenient season. It 1s not until 1715 that the
un. It may be well to warn the reader in advance of the perhaps undue
attention given to matters of discipline 1n this chapter. Let him not be deceived
by this into a false 1dea of the Church life of the tume. The historian is driven
to use such materials as time has spared, and the Church-books of the Indepen-
dents are almost solely concerned with outward, secular and sinful affairs.
That which was extraordinary has been chronicled and handed down, whereas
the ordinary work and worship of the Church, going on day by day and week
by week, has not been recorded.
108 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
last word is said and these disunited brethren separate for ever:
‘Our Brethren about Hitchin, having agreed with their brethren
thereabouts to make up the breach that hath been long between
them, we, the Church at Hertford, do hereby give our free and
full consent to all the members of this Church that reside in
and about Hitchin to unite with those other brethren, usually
meeting in Back Street in Hitchin, into one Church ’ (581).
VI
In the Back Street Church, now happily at one, there had
been many comings and goings of pastors during the twenty-one
years, 1694-1715, of the great schism. ‘Terry had ‘ gone-off ’
to Kettering in 1699. From 1700-1709 the Church was privi-
leged to have as its pastor Thomas Scott, of whom Philip Dod-
dridge said: ‘I believe he was one of the holiest and most
benevolent men on earth.’ There is, alas! no account of his
ministry here; nothing remains but these lines, composed as a
memorial upon his death :-—
* Wise without art and learned without pride;
Not vain of knowledge, nor morose to hide,
He lived for others; and his god-like mind
Knew no ambition, but to bless mankind.
Sweet was his nature; from his gentle tongue
Persuasion flowed, and powerful was the song.
Much of his praise this temple can attest,
And Heaven hereafter will proclaim the rest.’
It should be added that he published several sermons, par-
ticularly one entitled ‘An attempt to prove the Godhead of
Christ, by settling the sense of a simple text, viz. John 20. 28:
“* And Thomas answered and said to him, ‘ My Lord and my
God ’ ”’’ (628. 36).
Following this eminent divine came Thomas Wright, ‘a
man,’ declares Calamy, ‘ of extraordinary learning and ability,
moderation and peacefullness ’ (606. 3. 148). The good that this
worthy did is also interred with his bones. In the whimsical
memory of Time only this anecdote remains: ‘ Wright was tall
and handsome, and walked remarkably erect. As he went one
day along the streets of London a man followed him very closely
for a considerable distance. Suspecting some ill-design, Wright
turned right about at last and asked him what he wanted.
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 109
** Nothing, sir,” replied the stranger with the utmost readiness,
“* but that I might have it to say I trod in the steps of an upright
man ’’’ (628. 38).
Wright himself trod in the steps of his holy and benevolent
predecessor for four years, 1709-1713, and then handed over
the pastorate to one Isaac Hoskins, whose preaching proved so
attractive that his ‘ auditors’ were said to average as many as
five hundred, and to be of such standing in the world that fifty
amongst them were ‘ voters for the county.’ It was Hoskins
who reconciled the two parties in 1715 and brought them at
last after many wanderings into one fold under one shepherd.
By his advice the Church itself was reconstituted on the basis of
an agreement set forth in a document which is the first entry
in the Church-book (592. 1-2). ‘On the 17 October 1715, the
church of Christ meeting in Back Street Hitchin was constituted,
both parties uniting in the following articles: 1. To forgive
one another past miscarriages. 2. To covenant for themselves
and children with the Lord and one another to unite together
in the faith and order of the Gospel in the Congregational Way
as the Lord shall enable them.’ The third article, said to be
‘briefly rendered,’ but far too voluminous to quote, deals with
the controversy still raging about Infant Baptism, their views
on which, so they declare, had been seriously ‘ misrepresented
to the Ministers of London.’ In this article one can clearly
trace the hand of Edward Hitchin, a leading member of the
Church, who in 1706 had published a treatise on this very
matter, much commended to the reader by Isaac Watts, The
Infants’ Cause pleaded, cleared and vindicated, or the concurrent
harmony of all parts of Holy Scripture, for the Covenant, Interest,
Church Membership, and Baptism of the Infants of Belevers (589).
‘We believe,’ so they agree to say in this third article, ‘ we
believe our Infant Seed to be within the Covenant of Grace on
as good grounds as, according to a judgment of charity, we look
upon Adult Believers or Professors to be, and therefore to have
equally a right to Baptism as a seal and Token of the Covenant
and not merely as a Sign of their Dedication to God by their
parents, which without the Other we cannot but think to be a
very slender ground for Baptism at all.’... At the same time,
“ we detest that false aspersion that we believe our children shall
be saved or that they may, when adults, claim their place at the
Table of the Lord, though they live wickedly or walk disorderly.
110 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
We think it necessary in order to their being admitted to full
Communion that the Church should be satisfied as to such
further qualifications as the word of God requireth. ... We
would readily submit ourselves to further Light and Information
in these things from better judgements; though at present we
think, if most of these Principles cannot be maintained, we must
give up the whole cause, and go over to the Tenets of our
opponents in this, tho’ in many other things agreable Friends,
the Anti-paedo baptists ’ (592. 2).
It is not clear whether Hoskins followed up his threat and
‘ gave up the whole cause,’ but it is significant that he gave up
the pastorate the following year. Perhaps the ‘ Ministers of
London ’ were offended at the Church’s restatement of belief.
In this respect, at any rate, Hoskins’ successor, William Brown,
did not offend. He was determined to write nothing down.
The Church-book of his ministry is a blank. But needs be that
offences come; and one learns from later sources that Brown,
* allowing himself to be overtaken with liquor,’ sank by degrees
from his high estate, first into the respectable but subservient
status of a deacon, then into the condition of an ordinary member,
and finally was cast out of the company of the Saints into the
wilderness of this fallen world (592. 31-4). One would need to
search far and wide in the annals of Nonconformity to find any-
thing parallel to this. It was a tragic fall from grace; to the
congregation all the more tragic because of the time their pastor
took in falling. If only he had fallen headlong like Lucifer into
the bottomless pit, they could have borne it. But for them as
for him there was to be endured a long-drawn-out agony of
suspense, as this craving, like some foul and insidious disease,
drew its victim by slow degrees of degradation down to hell.
On their side there were prayers and supplications, forgivenesses,
remonstrances, denunciations; on his side, repentance, reform,
relapse, evasive replies, energetic denials, the obstinate silence
at length of one whose soul was extinguished. And then the
last, sad scene: ‘ As your offence is of a Public Nature, and
greatly aggravated, and highly reproachfull to our profession,
and dishonourable to Christ, and oft admonished, we do proceed
against you by the awful censure of excommunication as a means
the Lord hath appointed for the salvation and recovery of Back-
sliding Sinners ’ (592. 34).
For a time the Church struggled on without a pastor, afraid
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS III
to risk a repetition of what it had just been through. But in
1729, ‘ after long and earnest seeking to the Great Shepherd to
send us one according to his own heart, the Lord Jesus Christ
(in whose hands the care of the churches is) by his good provi-
dence sent Joseph Pitts amongst us ’(592. 7). By that time the
membership had dwindled to sixty-seven, and the worship and
discipline of the Church were seriously impaired. ‘It being
found expedient, yea and necessary, to have some order and
discipline amongst us, it was approved to concert some proper
measures thereunto’ (592.8). ‘'To discharge the office of
Deaconship,’ two members were elected by ballot, one to
represent the town, the other to represent the country members.
New trustees were chosen for the chapel property. The Lord’s
Supper, so long and sadly neglected, was reinstituted: ‘ Agreed
that the Lord’s Supper be administered the first Lord’s Day in
the month, except in the Winter season, when the shortness of
the days may make it necessary to administer it on that which
falls convenient for the countrey-people, i.e. hath the most
moonlight for them ’ (592. 11). The Church’s general approval
was given to the ‘ Resolutions of the Deputies appointed to
protect the Civil Rights of the Protestant Dissenters ’ (iii); but
so far as the repeal of the Test Acts was concerned it was agreed
unanimously ‘that an application to Parliament at the present
time is very improper’ (592.16). The Deputies, however,
would not listen to advice. At their instigation a repealing
measure was brought in by Plumer, a member for this county,
but was wrecked on Walpole’s opposition. Another ninety-three
years, 1828, were to elapse before this stigma was removed.
In the course of Pastor Pitts’s ten years’ ministry at Hitchin
the number of his flock was almost trebled. One of them,
James Belsham, was trained by him for the ministry, and became
pastor of the Church at Bishop Stortford (592. 22). Another he
trained to be a schoolmaster, and encouraged him to open a
day-school in the vestry. But some of the brethren proved
in. In November 1732, at a meeting held in Silver Street Chapel, London,
it was resolved that every congregation of the three denominations of Protestant
Dissenters, Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists, 1n and within ten mules
of London, should be recommended to appoint two deputies to be members
of a society for the protection of the rights of Dissenters This, as R. W. Dale
has pointed out, was the first attempt of Nonconformity to combine for purposes
of self-defence , it marks a distinct stage 1n the struggle for civil and religious
liberty. See his History of Engltsh Congregationalksm, p. 519.
112 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
quite intractable. First one and then another had to be cut off
for ‘their notoriously scandalous walk.’ ‘The most outrageous
sinner of them all was Robert Berry, the Hitchin clockmaker,
who ‘ spent his time endeavouring to lessen Mr. Pitts’ ministerial
character and hinder his usefulness.’ At last Berry went so far
as to say that the pastor ‘ told lies in the pulpit ’; and then he
went further still and made a maukin or image of Mr. Pitts and
‘ flung dirt and rotten eggs at it to beat it downe ’ (iv) (592. 17).
It is hardly surprising after this that Mr. Pitts felt obliged
to look for ease and satisfaction elsewhere, and in 1738 ‘ desired
a Dismission to the Church at Braintree.’ ‘There is a sermon
of his preached about this time on ‘ Faith the best preservative
against Fainting,’ which reflects something of his fortitude under
these trials and detractions: ‘’Though friends should be dis-
pleased with us, grow cold and frown, Christ will smile upon us,
and how little will their anger affect us then.’ And again:
‘ Difficulties are what we are to expect in our Christian Race
and Warfare, but we must determine, come what will, we will
not desert our Colours, but remain true and faithful to our
General ’ (597).
VII
James Webb, who followed Pitts, had originally been appren-
ticed to a weaver in Spitalfields, and, according to the rather
condescending account of Samuel Wilson, ‘ was not distinguished
by superior talents either in the pulpit or out of it. But he
was a man of regular and uniform piety, and supported for a
long series of years an irreproachable character. Although his
sermons were not remarkably judicious, nor his style good, yet
there was an unction attending his preaching which rendered it
very acceptable to experiential Christians. He was deeply read
in the old divines and imbibed much of their spirit and
manner ’(608). To this is mainly due the success of his
ministry here of more than twenty years’ duration. The old-
fashioned hot-gospellers of Back Street liked his old-fashioned
ways. They liked his thoroughgoing custom of calling himself
a ‘ Protestant-Independent-Dissenter.’ If he declaimed like a
Boanerges in the pulpit, and thundered at them as from Mount
iv. Fortunately the clock which Berry had made for the Back Street Meeting
was not cast out after him. It still ticks on to remind the brethren of one who
was a good craftsman if not a good Christian.
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 113
Sinai; if in consequence the deacons had to spend money, as
they did twice, ‘ for iron stanchions to the pulpit ’; if he visited
his people with his wrath and indignation and ruled them with
a rod of iron—they liked him none the less. To those whose
souls abhorred a smooth-tongued ministry, that seemed the
authentic, apostolic spirit.
His first two ministerial acts were characteristic of the man.
He appointed ‘ a time of fasting and prayer to humble our souls
before the Lord on account of the present threatening state of
both churches and nation,’ and then he persuaded George
Whitefield to come and preach to the heathen people of Hitchin
(592.28). It was expected that this renowned preacher would
be allowed to use St. Mary’s Church, for that was the only place
of worship that could hold the crowd which would flock to hear
him. But though Whitefield had been ordained priest that very
year, the vicar, Mark Hildesley, refused the courtesy of his
pulpit, and would not even let him preach in the churchyard.
It was impossible, he said, to have this vulgar revivalist raving
and ranting in his church. If he had driven fifteen of his
hearers mad in the very first sermon that he preached, in this
height of his powers he might drive the whole of Hitchin mad.
Not to be outdone, Whitefield borrowed a table and stood up in
the Market Place to speak. But there again he was checked,
for some fellows of the baser sort got into the Tower and so
jangled the bells that, in spite of his stentorian voice, not a
syllable was heard. It was an old trick, and one that had been
tried on Wesley, too. ‘'The Devil,’ wrote that divine in his
Journal on May 13, 1740, ‘knew his kingdom shook, and
therefore stirred up his servants to ring bells and make all the
noise they could, but my voice prevailed.’ Whitefield, instead
of protesting, took up his table and walked. ‘ We removed,’ he
says, ‘into a more commodnious place 1n the fields, but being
fatigued with the ride, and the sun beating most intensely upon
my head, I was obliged in a short time to break off, being
exceeding sick and weak. A kind gentlewoman offered me her
house, where I went in and lay down for about two hours, and
then came and preached near the same place, and God was with
us. It was pleasing to see how the hearts of the people were
knit to me ’ (594).
Wherever Whitefield sowed the seed of the Word there
sprang up instantly a hundredfold of people possessed with the
VOL, II. H
114 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
idea of becoming famous preachers too. However stony their
ground, however bare their abilities might be, God would provide.
For more than a twelvemonth after Whitefield’s visit the pastor
of Back Street Meeting was busy suppressing those forward and
independent spirits who, in chapel and out of chapel, kept
breaking out into unlicensed and unbridled exhortations. Some
he dismissed to the Church in Fetter Lane, then in charge of
the Rev. Edward Hitchin, formerly their fellow-member, who
held broader views than Webb on ‘liberty of prophesying.’
Others he reduced to silence by the discipline of the church
at home. One of them, it seems, had gained such a repute that
‘the church at Thatcher requested that he may assist them by
preaching or expounding among them.’ This request being
considered in the Church meeting, it, was resolved ‘that Mr.
Webb have some conversation with Bro. Impey on the affair, as
to his furniture and ability for so great a work ’ (592.30). Asa
result of the conversation, Impey was ‘ appointed to give a
specimen of his Ministeriall Furniture before the church,’ and
a text calculated to lower him in his self-esteem was chosen for
him in advance: ‘ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest
any man should boast.’ Apparently Impey’s expounding was
not approved, for soon afterwards he begged to be dismissed
to the Church at Datchworth, eight miles distant; ‘ this is com-
plied to,’ records the Church-book, ‘ without inquireing into
reasons ’ (592. 31). After that there was no further trouble with
‘upstart and self-created preachers.’
Vill
But pastors are preordained to trouble, and Webb was no
exception. At one time, when he was laid aside by sickness,
there was so much to do in the way of discipline that the brethren
met without him and proposed ‘to have some persons chose
unto the office of Eldership for the Service of the Church.’ It
was ‘ carried nem. con., and a day of prayer appointed for the
Thursday following.” But Webb, when he heard of it, would
not hear of it. It was an encroachment on his jurisdiction:
‘'The consideration of Elders waved, Not with Brother Webb’s
Inclination ’ (592.29). Certainly he was competent enough to
look after his flock. ‘The least slip and he was down upon them.
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THE CONGREGATIONALISTS IIs
And sometimes, acting on mere hearsay, he was upon them for
no slip at all. Sister Bray, for example, who was accused of
“ encouraging persons of ill fame,’ replied that she ‘ wondered
that people could be so foolish as to believe reports.’ After
more careful inquiry, it appeared ‘ there was no foundation for
the report and it seemed Injustice and Cruelty ’ (592. 41, 53).
In the same way, when they rushed in to charge Thomas
Nichols with ‘ public drunkenness,’ it was found he had a sub-
stantial if not a complete defence: ‘ He declaired that he was
wearied having been a long journey, that he did drink about
three half pints of ail, that being wet he stayed to warm and
dry him-self, and that he was in no ways insensible, that the
ridiculous part of the charge of flinging his hat in the Fire was
altogether untrue, that he is very thankfull to the Church for
their care and kindness, and hopes that the Lord will make it
of use to him, having laid with much weight on his mind, and
that thro’ Grace he shall be preserved from dishonouring the
Church.’ The Church ‘ declared their satisfaction therewith ’
(592. 42).
Amongst those cases that were brought home there is one
against Widow Langford for ‘ conforming to the Established
Worship.’ She protested that she went to St. Mary’s only once
in a while, but the Church decided ‘ to await the Sincerity of
her acknowledgment, and promise of future Dilligence ’ (592. 33).
There is another against Sister Nash which is not specified, but
evidently it ‘ laid with much weight ’ upon her mind: ‘ Reported
that Sister Nash was under great dejection and feared to come
to the Ordinance unworthily, but after some conversation she
was helped to come to it, saying if she perished it should be
waiting on the Lord’ (592.39). Brother John Kimpton was
admonished for ‘ Shuffling Untruth in his business and thereby
Scandalizing his profession ’ (592. 46); Brother George Cook ‘ for
breaking to the injury of his creditors and thereby giving occasion
to reproach the ways of the Lord.’ ‘He must own,’ he said,
‘that he was guilty. As to the things of the World, he hoped
thro’ Grace, they did not much concern him, but the dishonour
he had brought to Christ was grievous to him. The Lord,
however, had enabled him to look to the pretious blood of
sprinkling.’ It was agreed by the Church that ‘ the profession
he hath now made of his repentance be in charity judged sin-
cere ’ (592. 45).
116 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
In the last case we shall cite there is no sign of repentance.
On acount of his ‘ illicit drunkenness, swearing, slight of the
church, and a disregard of their tenderness, care and indeavour
to reclaim after long waiting and frequent admonitions,’ William
Thompson was declared ‘to be no longer a member of the
Church of Christ ’ (592. 45).
Throughout Webb’s pastorate the Church-book seems more
a calendar of misdemeanours than a register of Church affairs.
But at times the horizon widens. On June 18, 1746, for example,
two months after the massacre of Culloden Moor, a day was ‘ set
apart for thanks to the Lord on account of his great goodness
to the nation, especially in the great victory obtained over the
rebells ’ (592. 43). They had no illusions about what would
happen if ever the Stuarts came into their own again. On
December 8, 1755, ‘some time was spent in prayer relative to
the awfull appearance of God in the Dreadful Earthquake on
the rst Nov. at Lisbon; as also to the critical junctore of affairs
in the Nation, to humble ourselves before the Lord, and to seek
his Gracious Presence and Protection of us, and our defence and
success against our enemies ’ (592. 55).
IX
In 1759 Webb received a call to the Church at Fetter Lane,
and handed over the Hitchin pastorate to Edward Hickman,
who had just been displaced to make room for him. It appears
that Hickman, after serving as assistant to Richard Rawlin of
Fetter Lane for six years, had expected the pastorate when
Rawlin died. But the Church declined to give him a call, and,
‘a warm dispute ensuing, he was dismissed ’ (608). In a fit of
righteous indignation he shook the dust of that ungrateful city
from off his feet, and looked for fairer treatment in the country.
At Hitchin, in the Church of the man who had supplanted him,
his ministry was warmly approved, especially by the poorer
members of the congregation. In his rather censorious manner,
Samuel Wilson allows him to have possessed ‘but slender
talents’; and adds that ‘he was not remarkably judicious.’
‘ But,’ he continues, ‘ his preaching was esteemed savoury and
met with acceptance from plain, serious Christians ’ (608). He
Was even more successful as a pedagogue than as a preacher,
for side by side with his pastoral work he carried on a grammar-
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 117
school in Bancroft, which added to its numbers almost daily such
as should be saved from ignorance and sloth.
It was undoubtedly his fondness for little boys which beguiled
him into the unwisdom of admitting a lad of only fourteen years
as a member of the Church (592.65). It is true that the boy
handed in a written testimony of his belief and seemed to promise
well. But then, as one of the deacons pointed out, most children
seem to promise well. Before he was sixteen Thomas Beech
had so frequently offended as to be excommunicated and cut
off from the Church, and the deacon was enabled to say to the
disillusioned pastor, ‘I told you so.’ ‘It is advisable,’ the
Church afterwards agreed, ‘ to defer these premature admissions,
so that youths might have an opportunity of growing in Know-
ledge and steadiness of ‘Temper and Disposition ’ (592. 93).
There was only one other difference between Hickman and
his people, but it was grave enough to part them. It was in
1771, a year when the smallpox raged. They were burying
townsmen that summer by the score, and throughout the county
also, insomuch that Dimsdale, the famous inoculator, opened an
‘inoculating house’ at Hertford under his own supervision.
Foreseeing what was going to happen, Hickman warned his
people that ‘ inoculation was a kind of presuming upon Provi-
dence,’ and that he should refuse to pray for anyone who had
recourse to it (632.650). In terror for their lives, the richer
brethren resolved to trust to the practice of a clever Quaker
inoculator rather than to the preaching of their solid Independent
pastor. They remembered that his wife had died of the small-
pox, in spite of all his prayers, only two years before (v). They
made the journey to Hertford and were saved. The poorer
members, who could not afford to go to Hertford, had perforce
to stay at home and trust in Providence, and several of them
died. Unfortunately for Hickman, it was the richer sort he
had to look to for his stipend, and they were not minded to pay
for a minister who would not pray for them. There was nothing
v. The Quaker John Woolman, 1t may be remembered, shared the feelings
of those ministers of the period who preached against inoculation as an 1nterfer-
ence with the designs of the Most High. He looked upon smallpox as ‘a
Messenger of the Almighty to be an assistant in the cause of virtue.” And he
also died of 1t.
On the other hand, one should not forget the many who died of the
inoculation itself in the early days. On March 10, 1775, for example, Phoebe
Sharples of Hitchin ‘died of the smallpox by inoculation.’ And one could
cite many other victims.
118 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
for it, therefore, but to shut down his school and look for better
treatment in another part of the country.
It is evident that Hickman loved this little town and was
very loath to go. Three or four times a year he would come
back from Kimbolton and preach to the good people of Hitchin,
not in the Back Street Meeting, however, but in the Baptist
Chapel. On these occasions the poorer members of his old
Church would forsake all and flock to hear him. In the end,
after looking for better treatment in four more Churches, he did
come back to his first meeting-house at Hitchin, but only to
be buried. ‘In memory,’ says the epitaph, pathetically penned
by his son-in-law, the Rev. William Parry, and which looked
down upon those who had once ill-used him with a dignified
rebuke, ‘In memory of the Rev. Edward Hickman, a faithful
Minister of Christ, who was in his Doctrine sound, in his preaching
affectionate, in his Disposition humble, in his carriage peaceable.
After passing a life of fifty-one years in this world of vexation
and sin, his soul (refined by Grace) received her long-desired
dismission to the eternal world of happiness and joy on the
31st day of August 1781. His venerable remains, waiting for a
glorious Resurrection, are here deposited in the peaceful mansion
of the Grave, where the wicked cease from troubling and the
weary are at rest ’ (608. 3. 460).
xX
Soon after Hickman resigned the pastorate in 1771 a ‘ very
unanimous invitation’ was sent to John Griffiths of Hinckley
in Leicestershire ‘to come to us on Approbation.’ For one
month he ‘ officiated amongst us in an acceptable manner’; for
another month, having received a call to the pastoral office, he
‘ spread it before the Lord in order to determine wisely,’ and at
last, ‘ being fully convinced by many weighty reasons that it
was incumbent to move to Hitchin,’ he was solemnly ‘ set apart,’
the service being opened by ‘a very suitable and Pathetic Intro-
duction,’ and followed by ‘ a very excellent and suitable sermon
from Acts 20: 28: “‘ ‘Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and
to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood ” ’ (592. 75, 76).
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 11g
Griffiths was ‘an exemplary pious man,’ but he had less
reward of his labours than many who have been less devoted.
He was constantly wrestling with God in private supplication,
constantly ‘spending many hours together in prayer with my
friend, Mr. John Geard, pastor of Tilehouse Street,’ constantly
summoning ‘ extraordinary meetings of prayer of both churches
with a particular view to seek the Lord for the Revival of Religion
amongst us.” But their words seemed to return unto them
void. He obeyed to the full the injunction to ‘ feed my lambs.’
“ Our hearers were not numerous but appeared to be very serious,
solid and attentive.’ But throughout that time of dearth he
seemed unable to add to the number of his flock. During his
twenty-two years’ ministry there are only thirty admissions
(592. 69). It is touching to see how he rejoices over one sinner
that repenteth, over one member the more. ‘ He gives very
good evidence of being a Gracious man,’ he writes of William
Langford, who was admitted in 1782 (592. 83). In that he was
not mistaken. Against Langford’s name is this note in the hand
of a subsequent pastor: ‘ Died after being 46 years a holy and
excellent member.’
‘A modest, meek, humble and serious young man,’ he cer-
tifies of William Newman, who was added in 1784, ‘and the
Church considered his experience not only satisfactory but
sensible. N.B. Blessed be God for this fresh instance of his
favour to us as a Church in the Conversion of one soul after a long
Night of Darkness and Formality ’ (592. 84). ‘ May they prove
additional blessings to us,’ he prayerfully exclaims of Mr. and
Mrs. Morell, who were received by dismission from Malden in
1786 (592.85). Four years later he observes: ‘ 1 bless God they
and their family have proved great Blessings to us. I record it
to the glory of God.’ ‘ Blessed be God,’ he breaks out once
more in 1789, on the recovery of Ann Watts, ‘ for this instance
of Sovreign Grace after a long interval of Formality and Carnal
Security. The Lord grant that this may be a prelude to many
more ’ (592.87). He is not for turning anyone away who
possesses the least spark of grace. ‘1777. James Cooper was
admitted a member of the church. Our brothers Wilshere and
Field, who conversed with him, were satisfied of his being a
gracious man, but observed that he was rather deficient in know-
ledge. The Lord increase his faith and knowledge, too ’ (592. 81).
Hardly any questions were asked of those occasional communicants
120 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
who honoured the Church by wishing ‘to sit down with us,
whilst Providence continues them in Hitchin.’
A special feature of Griffiths’s ministry is the institution of
half-yearly gatherings at seed-time and harvest of both the
Independent and Baptist Churches. ‘It is a pleasant sight,’
says Griffiths, ‘ to see the two churches so peaceable and friendly
under one roof, keeping a day to the Lord.’ For the main part
they were occupied with prayer or thanksgiving or humiliation
on account of the crops, for a large proportion of both congrega-
tions still consisted of country people whose living depended
upon agriculture: ‘ 1789 July 23. An Extraordinary Meeting of
prayer of both churches was held at Back Street Meeting on
account of the rainy weather, which had continued about five
weeks, and look’d very gloomy upon our harvest.’ ‘ Oct. 22. To
return God thanks for the Good Harvest he sent us. N.B. Intem-
perance severely reproved.’ ‘1792. To return thanks for the
Harvest, which was intermixed with mercy and judgement. The
wheat was secured in a very good state. The latter part dis-
covered rather a judicial aspect as the barley and oats suffered.
Here may we learn and see our sins in our Punishment ’ (592.
86. go).
But sometimes the brethren were united in prayer on national
and international affairs, e.g. in 1788, when the repeal of the
Test Acts was once again ‘ spread before the Lord,’ and in the
general terror of the French Revolution in 1791, when thanks-
giving was made to God ‘ for his abundant mercies to us both
spiritual and temporal, and to supplicate the Divine Throne for
a blessing upon our ministrations, that precious souls may be
converted, and Peace and Harmony continue.’ The anxiety of
the nation is still more manifest in 1793, when Pastor Griffiths
‘reminded us of the mildness of last winter, which afforded
plenty of provision both for man and beast.’ But he also
reminded them that, by reason ‘ of the present stagnation of
Trade, the labouring poor are likely to become a very heavy
expense to the Nation, as we are informed that at Birmingham
and Manchester the Manufacturers turn off fifty or a hundred
at a time. Also the present war against France, in conjunction
with Holland, Prussia and Austria, is likely to prove a great
calamity to the Nation and a source of unknown Evils.’ This
sermon was followed up the next year by one from Pastor Geard,
who in his ‘ prefatory observations ’ speaks in melancholy terms
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 121
‘ of the war now carrying on in France and of the Yellow Fever
so fatal at Philadelphia and some parts of the West Indies.’
But in spite of all he ‘can assure the Godly of the Safety of
the Church, as in the hands of Christ, and of the preservation
of Religion under all National Desolations ’ (592. 91-2).
XI
In matters of discipline, Griffiths was generous to a fault.
‘We humbly hope,’ he says in his mild, subjunctive way, ‘ that
Discipline may be blessed as well as Doctrine, and that we may
be able to maintain it for the honour of Christ and the benefit
of his Church.’ It cut him to the heart to cut off any member.
He would always discover and give the benefit of the doubt
where his deacons could see no doubt at all. He worked and
prayed without ceasing to upraise those who fell, to restore such
as were ‘ excluded.’ Of one sinner he writes, ‘ The Lord restore
this wandering sheep ’; of another, “ We add our earnest prayers
to the great Head of the Church to reclaim this Delinquent and
restore him again to us as another prodigal to his father.” The
besetting sin of the Church in this period was what the pastor
termed intemperance, and the deacons in plainer terms called
drunkenness. One after another was cast out for this cause.
Here is a typical entry: ‘1774. Our brethren William Wilshere
and Thomas Baldock having spoken to John Froy, found him
remarkably stupid and unaffected with his case.... He owned
himself guilty of immoderate drinking, but he rather palliated
by saying he did not go to the ail-house for it, nor did he seem
to discover any contrition or brokennesse of heart, and sent no
message to the church. It was agreed to let it rest some time
and see how he would behave’ (592. 78). A few months later
he was ‘ excluded for Intemperance,’ having been repeatedly
admonished by the Church. The women were not as bad as
the men in this respect, but charges against them are not infre-
quent, e.g. ‘1775. Elizabeth Arnold was desired to keep from
the Lord’s Table on account of a report which was circulated
that she was seen in liquor the Lord’s Day after our last Sacrament
Day * (592. 79).
Amongst the miscellaneous cases of discipline, we may notice
that of Joseph Maulden, who in 1777 was charged with ‘ indolent
behaviour; his wife, himself and his family Half-Starving, and
122 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
he will not seek for work, nor put himself forward to do some-
thing.’ ‘In his own defence,’ as the pastor is quick to point
out, ‘he pleaded that there was no work to be got ’ (592. 81).
There is also the sad case of James Cooper, that member who,
as already stated, had been found ‘ Gracious but rather deficient
in Knowledge.’ The year after his admission he scandalized
the Church by ‘ listing as a soldier twice, and that on the Lord’s
day.’ It was agreed to suspend him ‘until he discovered a
proper spirit of Repentance and Humiliation.’ But he con-
tinued ‘ to walk as disorderly ’ as ever. Not only ‘ did he dis-
cover no repentance for his past Misconduct, but added to his
former crimes neglect in his family, indolence in his business,
and enlisted a third time.’ It was finally and unanimously
agreed ‘to exclude him from our Communion as a disgraceful
and unworthy member of a Christian Society ’ (592. 82). It
was such sorrowful lapses as these which moved the pastor to
count up and magnify his few blessings and copy them into the
book. For example, what a comfort by way of contrast was his
choir, a body of men and women generally found so touchy and
unharmonious and hard to please. Behold their sweet reason-
ableness in that year 1789, when the spirit of unreason was
abroad: ‘ Dec. 13th. This day our Singers, which are very
numerous, removed from the side to the Front Gallery with
great Unanimity and Approbation. N.B. I enter this Article as
a proof to Posterity of the peaceable Disposition of our Con-
gregation ’ (592. 87).
It remains to add that this pastor was a methodical keeper
of the Church-book and a collector of other books that might
increase the faith and knowledge of his simple-minded people.
They are still to be seen in the Church’s library, perhaps more
easily seen than read. But to glance over the titles only is an
illumination, and calls up the very image of their ‘ solid and
attentive ’ readers: Alleines’s An Alarm ito the Unconverted,
Winslow’s Midnight Harmonies, The Footprints of Popery, Deck’s
Joy in Departing, Half-hours with Old Humphrey, Hall’s Christian
Philosopher triumphing over Death (624).
In 1793 Pastor Grifhths had need himself of this last book,
for he sustained a heavy trial in the death of his son, ‘ an amiable
youth,’ it was said, ‘ of whom there was hope that he died in
the Lord ’ (604). The shock of this bereavement proved too
great to bear; his mental faculties failed, and after languishing
ae *» ps y
ip // I Vhs MO AfOVEO? CY D
t mdi décsdecr i alertthirw at ad ty fh Helens nw Ng ot
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 123
two years he died, the first pastor of this Church to die among
his people. It would have been fitting to have inscribed upon
his stone those words which in 1780 he had written in his native
Welsh tongue in the Church-book: ‘ Hyd yn hyn trwy R&as—
Gogoniant y Ddun—So far through Grace—Glory be to God ’”
(592. 83).
XII
After the iron discipline of Pastor Webb the Church had
found the yoke of this Welshman easy. ‘They were disposed to
try another of his race, and found an unmistakable specimen
in a student fresh from Homerton College, the Rev. William
Williams. Amongst those present at his ordination at Hitchin
in 1795 were the Rev. John Jennings, the author of two excellent
works on Preaching Christ and Experimental Preaching, who
preached a sermon on The Nature of Dissenting Churches, and
that remarkable man and ‘ fire-hot bigot,’ as he had been called,
the Rev. William Gordon, D.D. (605). Born at Hitchin and
baptized at the Back Street Meeting in 1728, Gordon had grown
up to be an Independent minister. But, being unable to endure
the theology of his brethren or tolerate the treatment of the
United Colonies, he espoused the American cause, emigrated,
and became pastor of a church at Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Being unable to endure that either, he became chaplain of the
Provincial Congress, and being unable to endure that, he sank
into secular life. By a piece of good fortune he obtained the
post of private secretary to General Washington, whom he
served in that capacity for several years. It was this association
which gave him a first-hand knowledge of events and an access
to the archives of State, enabling him to complete a history in
four volumes of The Rise, Progress and Establishment of the
Independence of the United States of America, which he published
on his return to England in 1788. For a time he existed on the
£300 which he received from its subscribers, and when that was
exhausted he accepted the pastorate of the church at St. Neots,
and when at last its members were unable to endure him he cast
himself upon his friends, dying in fame and reputation a doctor
of divinity, but in worldly goods a pauper (609; 633).
William Williams, to whom Gordon had given the pastoral
blessing upon his ordination, was no doctor of divinity, but
none the less a good, sound, working divine. ‘There was no
144 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
question of ‘enduring him’; he was beloved by everyone.
‘ Considering,’ he says, ‘how liable to unholy jealousy the
human mind is, I record it to the honour of divine grace that
the worthy pastor of the Baptist Church, the Rev. John Geard,
and myself lived on terms of strict friendship during the whole
of my ministry at Hitchin. May we meet at last in those happy
realms where peace distills like morning dew, and all the air
is love’ (592.99). If one is to judge his ministry of seventeen
years by the number of members he received, he was hardly
more successful than Pastor Griffiths. ‘The lean years had not
yet passed. But, as the Church-book notes, his forty-four
converts ‘ belonged, most of them, to what are called the respect-
able circles of society,’ and brought the Back Street Meeting
into high repute (628.13). It was amongst the women and
children that his influence was most marked: ‘ 1800. Mrs. Martha
Wolf was received into full communion; a small degree of
encouragement after a long silence. This admission was very
acceptable to us all.’ ‘ 1807. Miss Sarah Tapp and Mr. George
Brown were admitted into the fellowship of the church. We
all felt peculiar pleasure in the accounts these young persons
gave of the Lord’s dealings with their souls. O Lord, repeat
such instances of kindness to thy church, build up Zion and
appear in thy Glory ’ (592. 104, 107).
By the endeavours of the pastor’s wife, a Female Friendly
Society was established in 1803, and a Sunday School the same
year for boys and girls, though Miss Wilshere and her brother
afterwards claimed ‘to have done something of this kind in a
cottage previous to this date ’ (vi) (628.13). In the first month
aS many as seventy scholars were enrolled. It was due to her
perseverance also that the women, who now began to outnumber
the men, were for the first time given a vote, if not a voice, in
the government of the Church: ‘ 1811. Our brother John Tapp
having been previously chosen by the church to the office of a
deacon was solemnly set apart to his office. N.B. At his election
the sisters voted but did not speak; those who had anything to
communicate mentioned it to one of the brethren, who made it
known to the church ’ (592. 107).
The cases of discipline in Williams’s ministry are few. Evi-
vi. In the private account books of William Lucas, a friend of the Wilsheres,
there 1s this entry under 1787: ‘ Pd. towards an Establishment of those called
Sunday Schools 1n this town, £5 5s.’
em eae
aan 2
m
hit
Hi
Funai
oe ahd
BACK STREET SUNDAY SCHOOL, 1803
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 125
dently the members who had been drawn from ‘ the respectable
circles of society’ were exerting an influence for good. Not
until 1802 is there anything to record: ‘ James Arnold having
absented himself for about fifteen months, attending at the place
called The Moorhens (vii), the brethren Langford and Tapp
were sent to know the state of his mind, and to exhort him to
fill up his place; but he declared that he neither intended nor
wished to join us in church fellowship.’ On this, Pastor Williams
notes: * *Tis now seven years within about a month since I first
came to Hitchin, and this was the first occasion we have to
notice the conduct of an erring brother. Lord grant it may be
the last’ (592. 105). Other transgressions ensued, but Pastor
Williams in his charitable way disguises the worst of them in
cypher, not wishing to pander to the curiosity of times to come
(592. 99).
In the same way he would not allow one member to rake up
the past of another member before the face of the congregation,
or publicly challenge the character of any who applied for
membership. In 1794 there had been a most unfortunate scene
in the chapel, for, whilst William Tansley was delivering the
spiritual experience or testimony that was required of all those
who sought admission, he was brought to a full-stop by one of
the brethren, who suddenly and passionately wanted to know
why, if Tansley was really such a perfect man, his wife was
found to be with child by him before their marriage (592. 93).
For the future, said Pastor Williams, he would have no scandal
of this kind. The public testimonies gave place to written
testimonies, and it was not many years before these in their turn
gave place to private inquiries by the deacons and spiritual
examination by the pastor. If there were to be any adverse
comments on past conduct, they should be uttered in the discreet
manner which ministers know how to use, e.g. on the admission
of that erstwhile sinner Samuel Impey in 1808, when Williams
notes in the book: ‘Is he not a brand plucked out of the
burning ? ’ (592. 107).
In the year 1812 Williams was afflicted by a paralytic stroke
which took away the use of his limbs. The infirmity obliged
vii. A public-house. ‘This 1s the only lapse into facetiousness to be found
in the Church-book. Dr. Peel, however, more fair and charitable than the
author, notes upon this note: ‘ I do not incline to think the entry 1s facetious.
There may have been another dissenting congregation meeting at that period
at The Moorhens.’
126 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
him to resign, though his will and his devotion were such that
each Sunday he had himself carried to the chapel to hear his
successor preach. Each week-day he toiled on at that Hymn
Book which he was determined to complete: A Selection of
Hymns from the best Authors, including a number of originals (613).
This compilation, which was not printed till after his death,
does not appear to have been well received. His own originals
are so long that one would think the singers were already in
Eternity and knew what endless time they had before them.
But their maker was upon the verge of Eternity. Before they
went out into this world he had departed for the next, to be
numbered amongst those ‘ hundred and forty and four thousand
who are redeemed from the earth, and who sing as it were a
new song before the throne of God ’ (611; 623).
XIII
The Rev. Charles Sloper, who had been called to the pastorate
on Williams’s resignation, is said to have been ‘ caustic and
personal in his preaching, high in sentiment, and a little im-
perious ’ (628.14). At the outset he ruffled those members whom
Williams had brought in from the ‘ respectable circles of society ’
by remarking on the irregularity of their attendance. Whatever
Williams may have said, he was not going to have a privileged
class of members who sauntered in occasionally, and then late,
of a Sunday morning, or who condescended to come to the
Lord’s Table once a quarter. He accordingly decreed (1) ‘ that,
if any member be absent from the Lord’s Table, an inquiry
shall be made, and, if absent two succeeding ordinance days
without being able to assign a satisfactory reason, the same
shall be laid before the Church at their next meeting,’ and
(2) ‘ that, if any person, having it in their power to attend the
regular ordinances of religion, shall be found to neglect the
same, and only appear at the Lord’s Table with a view of
retaining their membership, such conduct shall be deemed
unworthy, and subject to such censure as the church may judge
fit to adopt ’(592. 109). He then proceeded to ruffle the
*respectables ’ still further by advancing Samuel Impey, that
‘brand plucked out of the burning,’ to be deacon, and finally
estranged them by marrying a domestic servant in the family
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 127
of Brother Brown. ‘That was the last straw. One by one the
ladies of the Female Friendly Society took up their hassocks and
their hymn-books and departed in a huff. Mrs. Frances Mary
Baron of Maydencroft ‘sent a message requesting to be no
longer a member of Back Street Meeting (such were her words).’
She was dismissed with this Parthian shot: ‘ We hope you will
now very seriously consider whether in what you have done you
stand approved before Him to whom we are all accountable,
and that you will labour to honour Him and to be found in
peace at the hour of death, and the great day of judgment’
(592.108). ‘The late pastor’s wife took herself and her children
off to Tylers Street Chapel. Two of the deacons followed.
Some are marked off as ‘ Gone to Americay,’ and some as ‘ Gone
to St. Mary’s ’ (vii) (592. 112-14).
Once the irreconcilables were gone Sloper set to work with
renewed vigour to fill up the vacant places. His preaching,
always described as ‘ powerful,’ compelled not the rich from
their respectable homes, but the common folk out of the high-
ways and hedges to come in. As many as eighty-four were
‘received.’ Not satisfied with his labours in Hitchin, Sloper
went out into the country places, too, and preached the gospel
to the poor. He even obtained a hearing for the Word at
Shillington, where previous to his day there had been great and
violent opposition (628.14). Ata farm known as Trunks House,
close to the ruins of Minsden Chapel, he converted a barn into
a meeting-place, and, after preaching in it himself several months,
persuaded ‘Thomas Oxenham, pastor of the Welwyn Independent
Chapel, to set up an evening lecture on the Lord’s Day (639).
“Even here,’ says Oxenham, in a book entitled The Riches of
Free Grace, ‘the persecutor appeared in the shape of a farmer
who threatened to play God Save the King upon the flute the
moment the sermon should begin. But he was so impressed
by the opening words of the discourse that, when his coat was
pulled as a signal to start his tune, he had no power to move.’
He was afterwards converted and ‘ has often assisted in carrying
vui. It was quite rare for an Independent to desert to the Established
Church; and there 1s reason to think that those who did so were not all moved
by spiritual motives. It1is recorded of one brother that, having been reproved
by his pastor for irregular conduct, he was not seen at chapel again. At last
the Minister chanced upon him 1n the street, and gently inquired why he had
given up coming to service. ‘ I’m finished with religion,’ he replied, ‘ I’m going
to jon the Church.’
128 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
on the service at Hitchin by raising the tunes for us’ with the
same converted flute (615).
So far, Sloper’s ministry had been one continual battle, but
there was worse to come. Open enemies he could deal with,
and, fighting a good fight, could exult over their discomfiture.
But now his own familiar friends, the deacons, turned against
him. One after another, and in spite of his powerful preaching,
they became infected with Socinianism (ix), and not only
indulged for themselves but secretly spread amongst others
‘heretical notions concerning the Spirit.’ As Sloper well knew,
the cause of the trouble was not far to seek. Not long before
he was appointed—in 1799—an Academy for the training of
Independent ministers had been founded at Wymondley, three
miles distant from Hitchin (632. 633). The students had been
placed under the rule of the Rev. William Parry, son-in-law of
Edward Hickman, the former pastor of the Back Street Meeting,
but as he was no disciplinarian they did very much as they liked.
Some got into difficulties about money, and others got into
difficulties about morals; but, what was worst of all, the taint
of Socinianism pervaded the whole place, insomuch that its
students were ‘ dreaded by most of the congregations to whom
they were sent.’ Unfortunately some of the students, for the
better understanding of the ways of Church life, had got them-
selves admitted as members of the Back Street Meeting, and so
the poison spread. Whilst Sloper reclaimed the heathen in the
hamlets around Hitchin, they perverted the souls of his faithful
people at home.
After much prayer and pondering Sloper decided to make
an example of their chief proselyte, who was his deacon, Dr.
Watson Perks. At a Church meeting held in 1822 he was
accordingly ‘ dismissed from his office, his sentiments having
been for a considerable time contrary to the faith, and his conduct
SO opposite to the comfort of the Pastor, and the peace of Society,
that it became impossible to exercise any longer forbearance
towards him’ (592.120). ‘Thereupon Perks ‘ voluntarily ter-
minated all other relationship by declaring that it gave him the
ix. This heresy can be studied in Dr. Hastings’s Encyclopaedia of Religion
and Ethics, vol. x1, pp. 650-654. Dr. South used to dismiss the Socinians
more summarily as ‘ impious blasphemers, whose infamous pedigree runs back
from wretch to wretch in a direct line to the Devil himself, and who are fitter
to be crushed by the civil magistrate as destructive to government and society
than confuted as merely heretics in religion.’
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 129
greatest satisfaction to dissolve all connection with the pastor
and the church.’ The other heretics were not cast out but
suspended. Here is their sentence in the Church-book: ‘ When
on a former occasion the Church met respecting certain errors
in doctrine which were propagating by some of her members,
an accommodation took place with a positive understanding and
resolution that if the parties then accused should at any future
time offend in like manner they should be suspended. Inde-
pendent of such resolution we have sufficient reasons now to
come to a decision, and we consider that purity of doctrine and
the Church’s peace and reputation demand of us immediate and
decisive attention to the advice of the New ‘Testament, especially
that contained in Romans 16. 17: ‘‘ Mark them which cause
divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have
learned, and avoid them.’’ We therefore resolve that William
Foster, James Baker and Daniel Rudd be suspended from the
communion, until the Church shall be fully satisfied that they
embrace her doctrines, and are every way prepared to seek her
peace and prosperity. And we resolve that henceforward similar
proceedings shall be instituted against any member who shall in
like manner offend against the faith and comfort of the Church;
and also that this resolution be fully stated to every future
candidate for membership ’ (592. 121).
This is signed by Charles Sloper as pastor, and by forty-two
of those members in whom no offence had been found. Of
those ‘ setters forth of strange doctrine ’ who had been suspended,
Foster soon followed his fellow deacon Perks and the other
irreconcilables and respectables to the Tylers Street Chapel.
Baker and Rudd joined the Quakers. Of those who, without
being suspended, were under a cloud of suspicion, ‘Thomas
Ward went off to the Wesleyans. For the Independents, he had
built the wall at the top of their burial-ground. For the Metho-
dists he did more: he built them a chapel. As for Sloper, he had
kept the faith, he had built a wall of salvation round the small
remnant of his people. But his warfare was accomplished, and his
imperious spirit was spent. He died, says the Church-book, ‘ of
a broken heart’ (628. 14).
XIV
Even if there were space, it would not be possible to multiply
words over the pastors who have followed Sloper. The first
VOL, II. I
130 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
volume of the Church-book, which ends with his ministry, is
intimate and all-embracing. ‘There is nothing hid from the
sight of God or man. But the later volumes have suffered from
suppression; compared with the first they are meagre, discreet
and dull. There are things in them, however, which it is meet
THE REV. WILLIAM WAYNE
and right to record. ‘There is, for example, the successful
ministry of William Wayne, 1825-1845 (x), who added as many
x. Francis Lucas gives an account of him ‘ A short stout man with high
shoulders ; of a thick complexion and very fond of smoking He had a consider-
able readiness and command of language and was often employed on deputation
business by the Bible Society. He lived in what 1s called the Rectory, just
outside the south gate of the Churchyard. Left a large family ’ (966. 188).
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS 131
as 194 members to the Church—some of them, it may be noted,
being received from the Wymondley Academy, which, having
rallied under the administration of the Rev. Thomas Morell
(whose parents were members of the Back Street Meeting),
finally broke up in 1832 (620).
There is the gradual decay of the fabric; the provision of
‘staunchions and seports’” to keep the rickety building from
falling ; the reward in legs of mutton and gallons of beer, and a ride
in Kershaw’s Coach, for the bricklayers and carpenters when the job
was done (583. 12-15). In the artless rhymes of William Carter,
who worshipped in it as a boy, there is a description of the Old
Meeting House and its services which may be interpolated here :—
*‘ Far back from the street stood the Meeting House old,
Where garden and fence did its entrance enfold,
A square, massive building with well-buttressed walls,
With a double-spanned roof to resist the rainfalls.
On its southerly side was the graveyard—so dear,
Where on Sundays were gathered from far and from near
An assemblage of people who lingered and gazed
On the moss-covered tombstones their forefathers raised.
But let me but faintly attempt to describe
The old Meeting House as seen from inside,
With its high wooden pews, where, lost to sight
Of parson and people you could slumber outright,
And 1n snug little corners, where quality sat,
They could, if they chose, even quietly chat,
For a curtain of baize would shut them quite 1n,
And hke to a cloak would cover their sin.
Tall pillars supported the roof, that was high,
The pulpit, ’twixt windows that looked on the sky,
Was fixed to the wall up a long winding stair,
Which needed a climb ere you found yourself there.
And just at its front was the table-pew found,
Allotted to elderly men who sat round
A table on which, as their elbows they placed,
With earnest attention the preacher they faced.
To add to its comfort a stove was supplied,
With a long pipe to carry the smoke to the side,
And pleasant 1t was on a cold frosty day,
If your seat chanced to be very near that way.
Round three sides of the building the gallery ran,
Which I'll try to describe if I possibly can.
There facing the preacher were organ and choir (xi)—
They were close to the ce1ling and could not be higher—
xi. Asmall organ had been purchased in Sloper’stime. Before then the sing-
ing was started with a tuning-fork and supported with two flutes and a bass viol.
132 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Grave men and women, maidens and boys,
All joined 1n the singing, producing a noise
Which, 1f not melodious, did certainly raise
The services louder 1n song and in praise.
The clerk read the hymns out, a verse at a time,
Then singers and people would heartily join;
And good old tunes we can never forget
To the choicest of hymns were invariably set.
At one end of the building, were vestry and room
Where friends met for prayer and would welcome you soon,
There tea meetings often enlivened the scene,
Those were happiest days that have ever been seen.
But they have all gone, with faces we knew,
Those men of the past who to conscience were true.
The Meeting House, too, 1s a thing of the past,
Like things of the earth that are not meant to last ’ (66).
Such was the building which in 1855 made way for the
present chapel, erected, as the specification required, ‘in the
Italian style of architecture, and to be carried out in all its details
with excellent taste and finish.’ In 1866, when a new organ
was installed by Halmshaw of Birmingham, it was stipulated
that its design should be Grecian (628.52). Any pagan style
would do, so long as it distinguished them from the style of
that Christian Church from which they had dissented. 'To ape
the architecture of the English parish church was the unpardon-
able sin (xii). That same year, when Pastor Griffith went to the
opening of the first Independent Church in Luton, he was
distressed to see a glaring instance of that very sin. On his
return he puts this caustic note in the Church-book: ‘ This is
xu. ‘I disagree with you,’ writes Mr Halley Stewart ‘ It was not anti-
church, but persecution that compelled the building of humble meeting-houses
where they would be less open to observation. It was a natural conservatism,
aided by poverty, and the cost of maintaining an educated Ministry that led to
opposition to improvements in architecture and the methods of worship.’
This 1s aninteresting problem The authors inclined to think that ‘ plarnness ’”
in building as 1n worship was adopted not altogether of necessity but for its
own sake, a sign and symbol of protest against that idolatry in things of wood
and stone and against that splendour and sacerdotalism 1n worship which, as
it appeared to a Nonconforming conscience, had led the Church of Rome and
the Church of England so very far astray. By way of local illustration one
might cite the words of the well-known preacher, William Huntingdon, 1745-
1813, who was responsible for the building of the Welwyn Independent Chapel:
‘ Build as plain as you can,’ he said, ‘ to keep out wind and rain 1s all we want ’”
(639. 19) There 1s a useful discussion of the subject in Nonconformest Church
Architecture, by Ronald P. Jones, M.A., 1914.
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS _ 133
the first Nonconformist place within 25 miles or so with a spire
and called a church’ (628. 52).
For a similar reason Griffith preferred the old and historic
name of ‘Independents’ to the term ‘ Congregationalists,’ then
(1832) recently adopted: ‘ We should not,’ he protested, ‘ let the
fighting force go out of this Society. We have stood, and ought
to stand, in the new battle with Scepticism, for all that is manly
and fearless ’ (622). Dr. R. W. Dale, in his History of Enghsh
Congregationalism, insists that the word * Independency ’ has only
a negative sense; but to Pastor Griffith and other stalwarts of
the older school it was the sacred symbol of a living, positive
faith. Under that banner of a name they had fought a tyrannical
king and a priest-ridden, persecuting Church. Under that name,
and no other, would they continue to fight the good fight and
finish their course.
Where such convictions are held it is not surprising to find
a resolute resistance to the attempts of the younger Congrega-
tionalists to ‘ churchify’” the chapel services. To the older
school it seemed preposterous, if not Popish, to squander money,
as they were continually being asked to do, for the enlargement
of the organ. In 1881, when they had unwillingly agreed to
‘the introduction of an anthem at the Sunday evening Service,’
they had limited their sanction to that ‘simple kind of anthem
in which all the congregation can join ’ (628.120). Were hun-
dreds of pounds’ worth of pipes required for that? Where, in
God’s name, would all these innovations lead? The game of
protesting is a losing game; but for conscience’ sake they went
on protesting to the end, not over this only, but, in 1899, over
the chanting of the Lord’s Prayer, and, five years later, over
concluding the hymns, as do the Anglicans, with an ‘Amen’
(628. 279, 323).
We have called these later Church-books dull, but it would
be wrong to belittle their contents. ‘They do bear witness, and
in no uncertain voice, to the steady growth of the Church, in
numbers, in harmony of congregational life, in spiritual ex-
perience. ‘There is the progress of the Sunday School; the
decision, in 1876, to take over the working of the Back Street
Ragged School (628.93). There is the more careful adminis-
tration of the Church property, endowments and charities; and
the provision of a minister’s house costing £900 in 1883 (628. 146).
There is the gradual decrease in cases of discipline; the besetting
34 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
sin of intemperance is no longer apparent. One finds only venial
offences, e.g. in 1866, when Fanny Buckingham is requested,
not even ‘ required,’ to stay away from the Ordinance for a petty
purloining of her mistress’s sugar (628. 53). ‘There is the widen-
ing outlook; the deputies sent to the ‘ Three Denominations of
Protestant Dissenters ’; the affiliation to the Free Church Council;
the petitions sent to Lord Salisbury ‘for the suffering Arme-
nians ’; the ‘ comprehensive prayers ’ that embrace the whole of
mankind. There is finally the creative work of the new age:
the foundation of guilds and brotherhoods and those other
manifestations of social service which have brought such a
renewal of youth and increase of usefulness into the life of the
Church.
Poring over the more recent pages of this book, one might
fall into the danger of despising the late Victorian era as a “ day
of small things.’ One observes a preoccupation about trifles,
e.g. ‘ 1898. After prayer, discussion upon the urns, which are in
a very bad condition; 1899. Consideration given to the squeaking
of the organ apparatus; 1900. Steps taken to cope with the
unruly behaviour of boys in the gallery ’ (628. 263-4). But these
are but the ripples that play for a moment over the still waters
of the Church. The main current of its life runs deep and
unobserved; it is ‘ hidden with Christ.’ In all one’s curious
search amongst documents one does not find it. Its still, small
voice is not to be heard in the fire of persecution, in the thunder
of discipline. Its secret is not to be discovered in any Church-
book, in any historian’s page. Unfathomable, immeasurable it
may be, yet one may at least render thanks for its outward and
visible signs. One may rejoice over the ‘ works’ of the Pro-
testant Independent Dissenters in this place. And one may
take leave of them, as one of their own pastors took his leave,
with comfortable words of blessing and of hope: ‘ My fervent
prayer and steadfast hope for you are that still happier days may
dawn upon you, holier influences bless you, and higher sanctifi-
cation reward you ’ (628. 57).
SUIIOSIUIW UIYDNFT JO sojdieys ovesy
OLLI Lnoav ‘ONILAGIW HOUNHOSOVUD AHL
THE QUAKERS (i)
They who worship the Merciful One are they who walk on the earth
gently and who, when fools speak to them, say ‘ Peace’
The Koran, 25. 64.
ORIGIN OF THE QUAKER MOVEMENT.
F this particular religious study one might
well say as Chauncy, the historian of
Hertfordshire, said of history in general
— This is a theme the least capable of
Rhetorical Flourishes, requiring rather a
smooth, methodical conduct.’ Bearing
that in mind, we would endeavour to
speak becomingly here of a people
whose founder set them an example of
'“fewness yet fullness of words’; whose
apologist bade them ‘speak soberly of past transactions.’ If
we are to do justly by these just people, there must be no
‘mad whimsies or runnings into imaginations’ ; no parade of
‘ sophistical science ’; nothing ‘set down in malice ’—nothing,
indeed, save ‘ useful and commendable knowledge.’ Yet with
the best intentions to write worthily of those whom the world has
reviled this ‘ smooth methodical conduct’ is not easy to attain.
For one thing, the Journals of the early Friends have little of that
economy of language which Fox observed. ‘ They are clothed,’
as one historian has said, ‘ in a redundancy of language, laborious
and sadly involved sentences, pages bristling with parentheses,
and supplied with a niggardly sprinkling of full stops’ (831.
i. For reading and revising these pages in their first unregenerate state the
author 18 indebted to Dr. Norman Penney, F.S.A., formerly librarian to the
Society of Friends at Devonshire House and editor of the Journal of the Friends
Historical Society; and likewise to Dr. Rufus M. Jones, joint author with
William C. Braithwaite of the official history of Quakerism in four volumes,
viz. The Beginmngs of Quakerism, 1912, The Second Pertod of Quakerism, 1919,
The Later Periods of Quakerism, 2 vols., 1921. The author also desires to
thank (1) A. Neave Brayshaw, author of The Quakers, Ther Story and Message,
2nd ed., 1927, for much sound and helpful advice; (2) T. Edmund Harvey,
author of The Rise of the Quakers, 1905, for many valuable suggestions; (3) the
Hitchin Friends, for entrusting him with their records; and (4) the Librarian
and staff of Friends House for their unfailing courtesy and assistance.
136 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
279). (ii) Then, again, there is a certain dehumanized quality
about their writing which is still more baffling to those who wish
to become familiar with these Friends. ‘There is an effusion of
Christian ink concerning their souls, but little concern with what
a Hitchin Quaker disparagingly called ‘ the dirty business of life ’;
‘no word,’ as Emerson complains, ‘ intimating that they laughed
or wept, that they were married or in love, that they had been
commended or cheated or chagrined. If they had ever lived
and acted we are none the wiser for it.” The mere worldly
historian, with his love of facts and his ‘ concupiscence of
curiosity,’ stands helpless and ashamed before this Quakerly
reserve. His is a hard case. He has a solid concern to publish
the truth and nothing but the truth; but no inner light shines with
its benediction on his soul, and no outward light upon his brain.
By common consent the first appearance of Friends in
England has been traced to the year 1647 or thereabouts, though,
as Penn once remarked, ‘ Quakerisme is but a new nickname for
old Christianity ’ (655. 2.227). Nevertheless, as Dr. Rufus Jones
has amply proved (iii), there were hints and intimations of their
appearing long before. In the little town of Hitchin, for example,
there was a scene at the Commissary’s Court as early as 1639
which no student of Quaker history could mistake. One Luke
Maddingly stood up before the bullying Surrogate, William
Lindall, Vicar of Hitchin, whom Bunyan afterwards referred to
as ‘ that old enemy of the truth,’ and required to know how much
of the tithe he collected was distributed amongst the poor according
to primitive Church custom, and how much of it he kept for his
perquisite as priest. And then, 1f one may trust Lindall’s own
report, ‘Joseph Wiggs came into the Court, and there standing
with his hat on was admonished three times by the judge to put
off his hat, and to remember in what place he then was; he
answered that he would put off his hat if the judge would lend him
a cap; he knew where he was—in a place made of wood, stones
and other things. Being again admonished, he said that he
would never remove his hat, and that, if he were before the Lord
ii. The circumlocution is not peculiar to the Journals. It.is to be met with
far and wide in the writings of the Friends. As late as 1825, for example, the
Annual Monttor, instead of saying of John Thompson that ‘ he died,’ says this:
‘It pleased an all-wise Providence to permit the termination of his disorder to
close his continuance 1n mutability.’
ui. See his Studtes tn Mystical Religion and Spiritual Reformers in the 16th
and 17th Centuries.
THE QUAKERS 137
of a manor, he might have justice, but here he should not. He
said, further, that he and John Clarke, who likewise stood in the
Court with his hat on, did so because they bought them to keep
on; that they were as good men as the Judge, and better subjects
to the King than any in the Court, with many other irreverent
speeches, not without sordid and rude gestures ’ (640).
A little while and these Peculiar People are lost to view in
the confusion of the Civil War. Unable to be ‘ at unity’ with
either side in the shedding of human blood, they experienced,
nevertheless, in the silent anguish of their hearts, what Woolman
in after years described as ‘the depth of the misery of their
fellow-creatures, separated from the Divine Harmony ’; and they
relieved that anguish where they could by binding up the wounds
of war. As for Lindall, he slunk away to hide his face in a rural
parish, where he was to learn, as Laud, his master, learned, that
the Church of England could not be allowed like the elder brother
of the Ottoman family to strangle all its younger brothers. More
than anything else it was the long-drawn-out agony of the Civil
War and the disillusions of the Protectorate which caused this
young brother, the Quaker (iv), to grow up and be recognized at
last as of the family of Christ; for the seekers who pondered upon
the sorry spectacle of these stricken battlefields, and the still
sorrier spectacle of these so-called Christian bodies unchurching
one another as false and schismatical, looked eagerly for that new
teacher who should declare unto them the way of life and unity
and peace.
Nor had they long to wait. Already in 1643 the Hitchin
soldiers on garrison duty at Newport Pagnell had listened amazed
to the outpourings of one George Fox, to whom the word of the
Lord had come, saying, ‘ Thou seest how young people go together
in vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all,
both young and old, and keep out of all, and be as a stranger
unto all’ (856.3). As yet Fox himself was but a seeker, in
sorrow and darkness of soul, ‘ going after new lights and finding
iv. As to the origin of the name Quaker, George Fox states in his Journal.
‘ Justice Bennett of Darby first called us Quakers because wee bid him tremble
at the Word of God, and this was 1n the year 1650’ (Camb ed ,1. 4). William
Penn writes ‘ One of the first that scornfully gave us the name was one Bennett
in Darbyshire with some other such Persecutors: howbeit for distinction sake
we do write and use the name Quaker, not being ashamed of the word of God
at which we have trembled. Isaiah 66. 2.’ (Sertous Apology, 1671, p. 12).
Robert Barclay considered that the name came from the trembling of Friends
under the powerful working of the Holy Ghost (Apology, prop 11, sec. 8).
138 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
none that could speak to his condition.” But soon the trumpet-
call of his voice was resounding over the length and breadth of
England, ‘a noble provocation,’ says Carlyle, ‘ inviting men to
resist evil, to subdue the world, and to Be.’
II
OPPOSING FORCES
To the Puritan stronghold at Hitchin that trumpet did not
sound in vain. From the learned discourses of ‘Thomas Kidner
at St. Mary’s, and from the hedge-preaching of the Baptist Henry
Denne, one seeker after another stole away unsatisfied to sit in
silence amongst Friends; at first in little groups of two or three in
Hitchin, and then in larger companies out of the town at Baldock.
By the sixteen-fifties they were closely associated with the larger
Meeting at Hertford, and some of them were no doubt assembled
there on that day in 1655 when George Fox visited the town:
‘ And soe to Hartforde,’ he says in his Journal, ‘ where there is
some convinct, and is become a fine meetinge ’ (829. 1. 191).
That same year he rode to Baldock also, and was brought to the
bedside of a Baptist woman who was sick. ‘When wee came
there,’ he writes, ‘ there was a many people in the house that was
tender about her: and they tolde mee shee was not a woman for
this worlde, and if I had any thinge to comfort her concerneinge
the worlde to come I might. Soe I was moved of the Lord to
speake to her; and the Lord raised her uppe so that shee was
well to the astonishment of the townde and country ’ (829. 1. 199).
* This Baptist woman and her husband, whose name was Baldock,
came to be convinced, and many hundreds of people have met at
their house since. Great meetings and convincements were in
those parts afterwards; many received the word of life, and sate
down under the teaching of Christ, their Saviour ’ (856. 115).
“And soe wee went to our Inn (v) againe,’ he continues in
his Fournal, ‘and there was two desperate fellows fightinge soe
that noe one durst come nigh them to part them. But I was
moved in the Lord’s power to goe to them. And when I had
loosed there hands, I helde on by one hande and the other by
the other hande: and I shewed them the evill of there doeinges,
v. The inn was ‘in all probability the “‘ George,’’ for that was always
afterwards the Quakers’ hostel ’ (829. 1. 434).
THE QUAKERS 139
and convinced them and reconciled them each to other: that they
was loveinge and very thankefull soe that people admired at
it ’ (829. 1. 199-200).
With such doings being noised abroad, it is no wonder that
those in authority began to take notice. In 1656 Ralph Radcliffe,
son of the squire of Hitchin Priory, enters in his note-book: ‘ The
Quakers are growing numerous and troublesome.’ In the same
year Thomas Kidner, Vicar of Hitchin, feels obliged to buy
John Clapham’s Full discovery and Confutation of the wicked and
damnable doctrines of the Quakers. In the same year John
Bunyan, who had not long set up as a preacher in the neighbour-
hood, wrote his first book, Some Gospel Truths opened, as an attack
upon the ‘ delusive and pernicious doctrines of those unstable
souls the Quakers ’ (vi); and warns his own brethren lest they
should be deceived by the ‘ high, light, frothy notions of this
company of loose ranters’ (831.286). Francis Holcroft, who
succeeded Bunyan as pastor of the Hitchin Baptists, was still
more scornful and upbraiding: ‘ Know, deceivers, though you tell
us a thousand times over that you own Jesus of Nazareth, till you
repent and renounce your false Christ, the Light in all men, till
you cast that your idol to the Bats and Moles, we will look on you
as Deceivers.” Joseph Oddy, who succeeded Holcroft, wrote
with more brevity but equal venom: ‘ Ye are a generation of
vipers and I can prove it.’ William Haworth, who ministered
at the same time to the Hitchin Independents, was always calling
attention to ‘ the rotten opinions of those Quaker foxes who with
unwearied travel compass sea and land, spoiling the vines that
have tender grapes. . . . If ever Satan transformed himself into
an Angel of Light it is in this people ’ (648).
III
PERSECUTION
These were but the preliminary skirmishes of a war in which
the fighting was to be on one side only. In 1657 the ‘ red dragon
of persecution was unchained.’ For refusing to pay tithes that
year, Edward Brockett of Hitchin was imprisoned for nine
weeks (669. 1.242). For refusing to pay the priest’s demands for
vi. This was taken up and answered the next year by Edward Burrough,
whom Bunyan in his reply calls ‘ a gross, railing Rabshakeh ’ (831. 287).
140 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Easter Offerings and smoke-penny, his fellow townsman, George
Huckle, was the same year haled before the “ Barrons of the Lord
Protector’s Exchequer at Westminster,’ and for his ‘ trespasses,
contempts and offences ’ was committed to prison, where he lay
in bonds till 1659 (834. 52,71). It is said by Besse, in his Suffer-
ings of the Quakers, that the priest, Thomas Kidner, ‘ had prose-
cuted him out of mere malice,’ and Huckle himself declared ‘ he
never had anything tithable at all’ (669. 1.242). In 1658, John
Lucas of Hitchin was ‘ cast into the Fleet ’ for reasons which he
proceeded to ‘ shew to the world ’ in a manifesto issued from that
gaol: ‘ The priest makes spoyle out off our goods att home and
keeps our bodies imprisoned because we could not sweare which
they called a contempt; but we are obedient unto the doctrine
of Christ and the Apostle who saithe sweare not at all, but are at
yea and nay in our communications. And thus for obeying
Christe’s commandes are we imprisoned, and thus the righteous
suffers and few layes it to harte, and not only we but many more
in other prisons’ (834. 54, 75-6). By the following year, 1659,
the ‘many more’ whom Lucas refers to had increased to 164;
for that same number of Friends presented a petition to Parlia-
ment to be allowed to substitute their own bodies, ‘ person for
person,’ for such of their brethren as were then in ‘ dungeons,
houses of correction, nasty holes and prisons ’; and they waited
all of them in Westminster Hall whilst their ‘ paper ’ was being
debated. Amongst them were John Lane of Hitchin and John
Crook, formerly Justice of the Peace for Ampthill (vii) and a
leading member of Hertford Monthly Meeting (831. 455).
From Parliament they expected little and got nothing, save an
order to go home and submit themselves to the laws and the
magistrates. It was by the tender mercy of Parliament, as they
remembered, that James Nayler, ‘ the first Publick Friend that
came into Hertfordshire,’ had been so barbarously used in
December 1656—his tongue bored, his forehead branded, his
body flogged by the common hangman. ‘ We are God’s execu-
tioners,’ one of the members had urged, ‘ and ought to be tender
of His honour.’ ‘ You had better take his life,’ protested
President Lawrence, ‘that tongue may afterwards praise the
Lord ’ (831. 262). Lawrence was right. Before that mutilated
tongue lay silent in the grave, it had pronounced words which are
the very quintessence of Quakerism, and which, as Rufus Jones
vu. In later years Ampthill joined Hitchin Monthly Meeting.
GEORGE FOX
From a painting by Sir Peter Lely at Swarthmore College,
Pennsylvania
THE QUAKERS 141
has said, give perhaps the most beautiful expression in the language
to the spirit that has passed beyond martyrdom into peace. It
was through Hitchin that the fallen prophet of his cause passed
in October 1660. According to John Whiting, he was seen by
a Friend sitting by the wayside in meditation, and passed on
northwards through Huntingdon, where another Friend beheld
him ‘ in such an awful frame (of mind) as if he had been redeemed
from the earth and a stranger on it, seeking a better country and
inheritance.’ A few mules farther and he found it. ‘ There is
a spirit which I feel,’ he said at the last, ‘ that delights to do no
evil nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things,
in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all
wrath and contention, and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty,
or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees to the end
of all temptations. As it bears no evil in itself, so it conceives
none in thoughts to any other. If it be betrayed, it bears it, for
its ground and spring is the mercies and forgiveness of God. Its
crown is meekness, its life is everlasting love unfeigned, and takes
its kingdom with entreaty and not with contention, and keeps it
by lowliness of mind ’ (831. 275).
It was to be a long time before ‘ all this cruelty was wearied
out ’; a long time before the promise was redeemed that ‘ my
people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings,
and in quiet resting places’ (Isaiah 32. 18). If under the
Protectorate the Quakers were unprotected, at the Restoration it
was not they who were restored. Only a few months after
Charles II, in his Declaration of Breda, had promised ‘ liberty to
tender consciences,’ the magistrates dispersed a Meeting of the
Friends in Hitchin. When they sat down with their brethren
at Baldock instead, they were still more despitefully used. ‘A
constable,’ writes Besse, ‘ with many rude attendants rushed into
the Meeting, and after many blows and abuses forcibly dragged
out Thomas Baldock, Thomas Burr and fifteen more, whom they
kept all night at an inn without beds, and next day carried them
to Hertford, where they were committed to the county jail’
(669. 1.249). ‘ They go like lambs,’ the diarist Pepys observed,
‘without any resistance. I would to God they would either
conform or be more wise and not be catched.’ But he marvelled
not only at the patience of the Friends, but at their pertinacity
and pluck. Arriving at Baldock on the 6th August, 1661, the
year after their Meeting was broken up, he says with an air of
142 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
astonishment, ‘ the Quakers do still continue and rather grow
than lessen.’ Evidently a new spirit, and with it a fresh problem
had arisen, which gave the authorities no little cause for alarm.
‘They are an active and subtill people,’ reports Sir Robert
Hildyard to Whitehall in 1661, ‘ they have constant meetings and
intelligence all over the kingdome, and contributions for to carry
on their horrid designes, though masked under the specious
pretence of religion and piety. ‘They also keep registers of all
the affronts and injuries that is done to any of them, when, where
and by whom’ (viii) (851. 8). In another official report of Sir
John Lowther, filed in the year of the Great Plague, 1665, he
says: ‘We are (thanks be to God) free from any more than
ordinary sicknesses; the most contagious is that of the Quaker,
which multiplies here, for though we have some under the lash
yet [for] the want of the executive part, transportation, our good
intentions stand us in little steed ’ (834. 241).
IV
Heroic PASSIVE RESISTANCE
In these parts the authorities showed that they, too, could
be ‘ active and subtill people.” They meant to give these zealots
their fill of persecution, even if they did seem to flourish on it.
In the Acta of the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, still preserved
at Hitchin, one reads that on October 12, 1662, John Turner,
Edward Brockett, Abraham Wye, Edward Draper and three
other Hitchin Friends were presented for not causing their
children to be baptized. On October 30, 1663, six other Hitchin
Quakers were heavily fined for not paying their rates to the
Church. On June 3, 1664, five were presented ‘ for standing
excommunicate ’; twenty-eight more ‘for not coming to their
parish church to hear divine service; the Widow Rowley and
the Widow Whittingstall for not causing their husbands, and
Edward Draper for not causing his child, to be buried in Christian
burial (ix); and Francis Field of Hitchin, Shopkeeper, ‘ for being
vu1. Compare Margaret Fell’s letter to Colonel Kirkby from Swarthmoor,
20th of roth month, 1664: ‘ Wee are willing to give up to the will of the Lord,
and to give up our backs to the smiter, knowing that the Lord in his due time
will visit for these things ’ (829. 2 393).
ix. Amongst the rolls of Herts Quarter Sessions is a memorandum under
the year 1662 of certain ‘ Anabaptists, Independents and Quakers who were
THE QUAKERS 143
a disperser of Quakers’ Books ’ (632. 638). By the passing of the
Conventicle Act of 1664, which was a restatement in stronger
terms of the Quaker Act of 1662, the powers of the persecutors
were enlarged, and the Friends’ sufferings correspondingly
increased. Under this statute a third conviction was made
punishable by transportation; and by the craft and subtlety of
the authorities the sentences on the first and second convictions
were lightened so as to lead on more rapidly to the extreme
penalty. Within six weeks of the Act’s coming into force there
Were nine cases at Hertford Assizes already ripe for banish-
ment (851. 42). After bullying the Grand Jury into finding
a true bill, the judge, Sir Orlando Bridgman, charged the common
jurors ‘ not to expect a plain, punctual evidence against them for
anything they said or did at their meeting; for they may speak to
one another, though not with or by auricular sound, but by a cast
of the eye, or a motion of the head or foot, or gesture of the body;
and they themselves say that the worship of God is inward in the
spirit, and that they can discern spirits and know one another in
the spirit. If you believe in your hearts that they were in the
meeting under colour of religion in their way, then it was an
unlawful meeting .. . for it is an easy matter at such meetings
to conspire and consult mischief’ (851.43). In the result,
eight of the nine were sentenced to seven years’ transportation,
but, after struggling with contrary winds between London and
Deal for nearly two months, the captain of the ship which was to
take them to Jamaica and Barbados put them ashore, with a
certificate declaring that he perceived that the hand of the Lord
was against him, and that his men refused to continue the voyage
if he carried the Quakers. ‘The eight Friends returned to London
and calmly notified the King of the facts; whereupon an Order in
Council issued to secure them until further means of transportation
could be found; and under that order they remained, forgotten in
prison, until the Great Pardon of 1672 (851. 43-4).
But the greater number of the cases against the Hitchin,
Baldock and Hertford Quakers in that year, 1664, were heard at
Quarter Sessions before Sir Henry Chauncy. On the title-page
of the contemporary Relation of the unjust proceedings of some
called justices at Hertford upon the Tryall of one and twenty innocent
gathered together to bury an old man 1n an orchard.’ ‘The name of the parish
does not appear, but some of the surnames are those of Hitchin people
(72. 1. 148).
144 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
persons called Quakers for a pretended breach of the late Act there
is printed this accusation from Jsatah 59. 11: ‘ Judgment is turned
away backward, and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen
in the street and equity cannot enter.” Thomas Moss, one of the
prisoners, who ‘ with divers other malefactors was taken at an
unlawful meeting or conventicle at the house of Thomas Baldock
of Baldock under the colour of Religious Exercise to the disturbing
of the Peace and endangering the King’s Crown and Dignity,’
said he had frequented that meeting for seven years, but only ‘ to
wait upon the Lord and to receive refreshment from his presence.’
‘ The light within you,’ burst out ‘Thomas, Viscount Fanshawe,
from the Bench, ‘is but a melancholy vapour of the brain, and
leads you to one thing to-day and another thing to-morrow so
that you change every day.’ ‘ Thou hast not found us so change-
able hitherto,’ answered Thomas Burr, ‘ neither wilt thou ’ (641).
In that he spake true. ‘There never was a body of men so inflex-
ible or constant 1n their views. Nothing that the world might do
to them made one jot or tittle of difference; they went on in
‘ heroic tranquillity ’as before. ‘ Have we not always been a quiet,
peaceable, harmless people?’ exclaimed Ellwood, about this time.
* When, being reviled, did we revile? Or when, being persecuted,
did we not patiently suffer it? Do you think to root us out and
destroy God’s heritage? It is impossible. The root of Jesse
bears us; and upon the unmovable rocks are we immovably
built.” Of many at Hitchin it might be said, as was said of John
Furly in 1663, ‘ he hath a wife full of sorrowes, a familie full of
children, and his hands full of bussinesse, all of which are now in
a suffering 1f not a perisshing condition ’ (834.181); yet they
were outwardly as ever unmoved, and their souls undisquieted
within them. ‘The unrighteous might think to oppress them, as
they had oppressed ‘ the holy nation’ of old. They might shut
them up as ‘ prisoners of darkness and fetter them with the bonds
of along night.’ But not even the unrighteous could ‘ exile them
from the eternal providence,’ or break their indomitable spirit.
‘ Being clothed in innocency,’ writes Barclay in dedicating his
Apology to the King in 1678, ‘in the hottest times of persecution
and the most violent prosecution of laws made against meetings,
they have boldly stood to their testimony for God without creeping
into holes or corners, or once hiding themselves as all other
dissenters have done, so that none of thy officers can say they
surprised them ina corner, overtook them in a private conventicle
THE QUAKERS 145
or catched them lurking in their secret chambers, nor needed they
to send out spies to get them whom they were sure daily to find
in their open assemblies testifying for God and his truth.’
CONTINUED PERSECUTION
And so when George Fox revisited Baldock in 1667, though
eleven Friends had been banished and many more had had their
‘removal’ to Hertford gaol, he is able to say, ‘I had a great
meetinge of many hundreds of people ’ (829. 2. 119). Disguised
amongst those many sorts of people lurked those informers for
whom already the town of Baldock was notorious, and whose
receipts for their share of the spoil can be seen to this day in the
Quarter Sessions Rolls. The passing of the second Conventicle
Act of 1670, which Marvell described as ‘the quintessence of
arbitrary malice,’ made another boom in their nefarious trade
(851.67). ‘ On May 12, 1670,’ writes Besse, ‘ a meeting was held
at Thomas Burr’s house in Baldock, for which he, though then in
prison, was fined twenty pounds. When Robinson, an informer,
came to make distress, he found Burr’s malt-house shut up, of
which he complained to the justices Radcliffe and Wilmot, who,
under a pretence of searching for a Conventicle, granted a warrant
to break open the doors, which the officers being backward to
do (x), the justices came in person, and threatened the chief con-
stable to fine him {500 if he did not break open the doors of the
malt-loft. At length the informer burst open the doors, and they
took away twenty-six quarters of malt, part of which was put in
the market house because no person in the town would receive it.
On the 17th of next month Thomas Burr was again fined for
four several meetings at his house, for which they again broke
open his malt-house and carried away a hundred and four quarters
of malt. Thus, while close confined in prison, he suffered the
spoiling of his goods to the value of £130’ (669. 1. 249). It is
not surprising that he was reduced before long to ‘ settle his
estate to satisfye his creditors.’
x. * If 1t please your Worships,’ they reported, ‘ here 1s all we could come
at, for all the gates and doores were all lockt that we could not come at noe
more of their goodes save two paires of shooes, 5s.: 6 paire of stockings, 5s.:
one doz. of candles, 4s. 6d.: and two bushel of malt, 5s.; therefor we would
desire your worships not to be very strict with us, for we have done our
endeavours to get them all distrayned ’ (72. 1. 263).
VOL. II. K
146 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Two days later, June 19, 1670, writes Besse: ‘* Justice Rat-
cliffe (xi) came to the Friends’ Meeting at Hitchin and said,
‘*I hope you will not deny that this is a religious assembly,”
repeating the same words several times. One present answered,
‘“‘ It is a religious meeting ”’; he replied, ‘“‘ That’s enough,” and
gave his warrant to distrain for £20; to levy which the officers
broke open the doors of Frances Field, widdow, and for a silent
Meeting beinge at her house in the towne of Hitchinge they took
away goods worth £10 which they sold for 40s. ‘They also took,
for part of the same fine, from William Turner goods to the value
of £14; and on the next day from Samuel Crouch, John Barker,
John Mansfield, and William Marshall, goods worth £1 19s.’
(669. 1. 249). It was alleged by the constables in justification
that unless they sold ‘ great penniworths’ they could not sell
at all.
Yet another raid was made by Justice Radcliffe in 1672, one
of the sufferers being the wife of Francis Penn, whose family
was for many years prominent amongst Hitchin Quakers, the
house of Susan Penn of Preston being registered as a place of
meeting for the outlying members of the Society in 1711 (632. 638).
In spite of this raid, however, the year 1672 was a year to be held
in merciful remembrance. ‘There was first the Declaration of
Indulgence, and then the Great Pardon, to which as many as
491 prisoners owed their release (xii). From this time forward
and until the Toleration Act of 1689 was passed it becomes
evident that the violent persecuting spirit of the Cavalier Parlia-
ment was dying down. Friends are still haled off to Hertford,
e.g. Abraham Thompson in 1673; William Lucas and Samuel
Newman in 1684; Thomas Baldock in 1685, this last on the
trumped-up charge of an informer for being concerned in the
Duke of Monmouth’s Rebellion (72. 1.352). But these are
solitary cases. ‘There is no longer any wholesale slaughter of the
innocents. For denying the priest his due, and for default in
payment of fines levied for not coming to church, they are dis-
xi. Ralph Radcliffe had succeeded to the Priory estates in 1660 and had
received a knighthood. The Quakers, of course, would not recogmze his title;
and they referred to his wife as ‘a female of the name of Mary Radcliffe, who
was called a Lady.’
xii. It is no small tribute to the magnanimity of Friends that the names of
John Bunyan, whose first book had been directed against the Quakers, and
Francis Holcroft, who, as pastor of the Hitchin Baptists, had preached against
them, were inserted in their own particular pardon (851. 85).
6z61 ‘satinbg q @ Aq Yydeidojoyd ve Wolly ‘MatA youg
duOsALYaH LV ASNOH-ONILAAW SANA
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THE QUAKERS 147
trained upon as before; but what is taken begins to bear more
relation to what is due, and the sympathizing townsmen stand
aside and allow them or their friends to buy back their own goods.
Sometimes, indeed, it happened, as in the oft-cited instance of
John Gratton, that ‘when people heard the sale of goods
proclaimed, they wished sad things to such as bought any of
them,’ so that none were sold (xiii) (851. 80). Slowly but surely,
as Nayler had prophesied, they ‘ were outliving all wrath and
contention, and wearying out all cruelty,’ and had some hope now
“to enjoy their own in the end.’
VI
BEGINNINGS OF ORGANIZATION
Even before the passing of the 'Toleration Act we may observe
a settling down, or ‘centreing down’ as they would say, into the
quiet security of meetings. In 1683 a collection of notables going
under the name of the ‘ Royston Club,’ of whom Sir Ralph
Radcliffe was the moving spirit, had ‘ resolved the pulling down
of the Quaker Meeting House at Hertford’ ; but they were made
to learn that even magistrates must condescend to keep the law;
and to their shame and indignation had money extracted from
them in the courts to build a larger Conventicle than the one they
had destroyed (79. 2. 40). After that fiasco there was no further
interference with the Quaker way of worship at Hertford or
Baldock or Hitchin. It is unfortunate that the earliest records
of Hitchin Particular Meeting are lost, but from those of Hertford
Monthly Meeting, of which Hitchin formed a part, and from
private sources, one can trace the beginnings of organization in
this little community of Friends. There being no Meeting
House as yet at Hitchin, the meetings for worship were held in
the house of William Lucas, which stood where the shop of
Messrs. Perks & Llewellyn, No. 9, *High Street, now stands.
By arrangement with the Town Constables, the barn at the back
was used as a clearing-house for the goods and chattels taken from
the members in distraint.
xu, Besse, who 1s always pleased to point out when the ungodly perish,
does not forget the ‘ Concurrence of Disasters that soon after happened to the
buyers’ of Robert Huntingdon’s goods, 1670. He adds: ‘ We think :t but just
to lay before our Readers the Fact . . . and leave them to form such a Judgment
thereof, as from the Nature of the Case, when maturely considered, shall result *
(669. 1. 131).
148 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
If any member was impoverished through this cause or
another, he was not allowed to want. Sometimes in money,
sometimes in kind, a weekly allowance would be made. In 1669
a sum of 25s. was raised in Hitchin Meeting ‘ for those which
were sent to the goall and not able to main-taine themselves ’
(643.1). In 1670 the sum of £2 16s. ‘ for binding of apprentices
and relieff of the poor ’ (643. 2). In 1683 a cow was purchased
and lent round to needy families (643.7). In 1685 William
Turner of Hitchin was appointed to look after the Friends’
Sufferings for the year, with special direction to visit those
members in prison who had sickened of the smallpox (643. 8).
Nor were the needs of others overlooked. In 1673 the sum of
£2 7s. 6d. was contributed ‘on account of Friends beyond
sea’ (643. 4). In 1679 the sum of £1 3s. 5d. was collected
‘towards the Redemption of Friends taken by the Turks,
perticular by the Algerian Men of War ’; six years later a further
£1 12s. 6d. was raised on their account (xiv) (643. 6). In 1688
the sum of £6 was sent to ‘ their suffering Friends and brethren
in Ireland,’ who four years earlier had sent five pounds to
them (643.9). In 1698 {1 17s. 6d. was subscribed ‘for the
relief of Friends in the North part of Scotland, by reason of the
scarcity there by the failing of their crops for three years last
past ’ (643. 10).
Marriages and matters of discipline were referred to the
Monthly Meeting. In 1674, for example, Abraham Thompson
of Hitchin, wheeler, and Katherine Roberts of the same town,
spinster, appeared before the Friends at Hertford ‘ with intention
to marry,’ and after careful examination were certified as being
‘free from any entanglement prejudicial to the married
estate ’ (643. 5). Of the offences recorded we may notice that
of Henry Essex, who had ‘ abused and belyed Henry Stout in
reporting that he entertained a Jesuite or Popish Priest at his
house, which the Meeting was satisfied was a falsehood ’; the
sting of the suggestion lay, of course, in the rumour then current
that the Quakers themselves were but Jesuits in disguise, their
leaders being identified with ‘ certain persons of the Franciscan
Order in Rome who have of late come over to England ’ (831. 172).
The very same calumny was raised against Wesley a hundred
years later. A truer charge was maintained against Robert and
xiv. The Friends 1n captivity at Algiers were so numerous as to hold a
Meeting there, and epistles were received from them by Friends in London.
THE QUAKERS 149
Elizabeth Berry, ‘ your desolate Friends,’ who signed an admission
that, ‘instead of marrying after the laudable manner of Truth,
we did it by a priest after the Superstitious Form of the Church
of England, a rash inconsiderate adventure, which was the result
of a surprising temptation ’ (643. 11). To check these and other
disorders in their infancy, ‘ Masters and Parents of children are
to take care that the children be more orderly at our meetings,
and that they do not run out so often ’ (643. 12). <A list of books,
‘approved by the faithful,’ is to be exhibited in the shop of
Thos. Field, bookseller, of Hitchin, and in 1699 he is directed
to supply each Particular Meeting with a copy of John Wyeth’s
The Suttch for the Snake as a counterblast to the scurrilous attack
made on the Society by a pamphlet published anonymously by
Charles Leslie in 1696 entitled: ‘ The Snake in The Grass, or
Satan transformed into an Angel of Light, discovering the deep and
unsuspected Subtility which 1s couched under the pretended Sim-
plicity of many of the principal Leaders of those people called
Quakers ’ (xv).
The time was at hand, however, when Hitchin Friends could
be trusted to deal with their own cases of discipline. As far back
as 1666 Fox had been ‘ moved of the Lord God to sett uppe and
establish monthly meetinges of men and women to admonish and
exhort and to take care of God’s glory ’ (829. 2.111). In 1668 he
had visited the county of Hertford to carry out the Lord’s will in
this respect (829. 2. 119); and in 1670 it had been decreed at
Quarterly Meeting that a ‘ Monthly Meeting should be held at
Baldock for that place and for Hitchin, Ashwell, Cottered, Rushden
and Stevenage ’ (643.3). As yet Hitchin Meeting was not
strong enough to claim the powers of a Monthly Meeting. Nor
apparently in 1678, when, as Dunnage says in his History of
Hitchin, ‘ George Fox the Apostle of the Quakers visited the
town ’ (28. 180). On the 7th of the eleventh month, 1688,
however, it was agreed at Hertford ‘ that Friends at Hitchin and
thereabouts may keep a Monthly Meeting, and all Friends that
have any business may repair there, and lay their matters before
that Meeting.’ After that advance there was no looking back.
xv. In following years Field and his successor are to be found distributing
amongst the subscribing members of the Hitchin Meeting 7 large and 7 small
copies of Barclay’s Apology, 2 copies of John Crook’s Truth’s Principles, 2 copies
of Penn’s No Cross, No Crown, 1 copy of Pike’s Baptism and Supper, 3 sets of
Besse’s Suffertngs, and 1 copy of Thomas Story’s Journal (643. 13).
150 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
VII
TRAVELLING MINISTERS
In 1694 a meeting-house was built in the alley then known as
Cod-piece Alley, but afterwards and to this day more pleasantly
described as Quakers Alley (28.180). This was not licensed
under the Act; for in the hottest times of the persecution, when
the other Nonconformists were driven to subterfuges which
George Fox described as ‘ veriest hypocrisie,’ the Quakers had
not ceased to meet. The only licence they recognized was from
God, who, when they met together, was in the midst of them. It
was not long before a burial-ground was added on the outskirts
of the parish. ‘ For a little piece in Salter’s Dell,’ reports
Draper, the Steward of the Manor, who was also Churchwarden
of St. Mary’s, to his Lord and fellow-churchman in 1715, ‘ the
Quakers pay me the quit rent of a half-penny onely by the year
but if they but haste to be buried there we shall not repent the
bargain. It were a blessing if this little copyhold could presently
hold them all’ (5). Draper, however, was not to be indulged.
To his mortification these exasperating Quakers not only lived,
but flourished; growing each year more and more in the nurture
and admonition of George Fox. One reads of them in 1704
‘ agreeing to take four of George Fox’s Doctrinall Books ’ (643.17).
It is his side they adopt in the John Perrot controversy, when
those who professed to have ‘ received a commandment from
the Lord of Heaven to bear a testimony against such a custom,’
declined to remove their hats in meeting when any not of their
‘ quietist ’ persuasion prayed (851. 233, 243). One watches the
‘weighty, seasoned and substantial Friends’ amongst them
journeying the sixteen miles to Quarterly Meeting at Hertford.
In 1700 it was agreed that they should meet at an earlier hour,
*‘ considering that some have a considerable way home ’ (643.15).
One hears of Friends at Hitchin Meeting helping to build other
meeting-houses as far off as Bishop’s Stortford. No longer a mere
echo of the Hertford Meeting, they have a voice, a will, a tradition
of their own. When Susan Featherstone of Hertford came to
preach at them in 1701, they would not suffer her to speak. ‘ In
divers publick meetings for worship,’ they protest, ‘she hath
shewed herself to be a troublesome, malicious and vexatious
woman, and one that ought by some convenient method to be
put to silence ’ (643. 16).
THE QUAKERS 151
To those ‘ publick Friends,’ on the other hand, who had a
concern to establish them in the faith, they listened with ‘ unity
and satisfaction.’ In the first year of their setting up as a
Monthly Meeting, 1689, there came John Taylor, formerly a
planter in Barbados, but recently settled at York, to whom George
Fox, as he took him by the hand, had said these memorable words:
* Young man, this is the word of the Lord to thee: there are three
scriptures thou must witness to be fulfilled; first thou must be
turned from darkness to light; next thou must come to the know-
ledge of the glory of God; and then thou must be changed from
glory to glory ’ (851. 442).
In 1695 they were favoured with a visit from James Dickin-
son (xvi), the friend of Robert Barclay, who had just fulfilled the
“command ’ to prophesy against the wicked people of London by
crying along their streets: ‘ Woe, woe, woe from the Lord’
(28. 180; 665). From Pennsylvania the same year came Thomas
Janney, whose profound solemnity of words made all the deeper
impression because he passed from the silence of their meeting
into the silence of the grave. He died suddenly at the house of
William Turner, the leading Hitchin Friend of that period, and
lies buried in Salter’s Dell (xvii) (649. 180).
But it was by Thomas Story, the lifelong friend of William
Penn, that they were visited most of all. In the Journal of this
gifted and beloved minister there are as many as eight visits
recorded between 1714 and 1740. ‘On the fifth of the roth
month, 1714,’ he writes, ‘ I went to Hitchin, where I was at their
week-day meeting, which was small, no notice having been given.
That night I tarried at the Widow Susannah Turner’s.” On the
fourth day of the 5th month, 1717, he was again with them:
‘ The beginning of the meeting this day was very heavy and dull,
a dead spirit being over several ; but in the end the Lord quickened
us together; the most were comforted and helped and the rest
reproved.’ On the twenty-eighth day of 4th month, 1722, he
xvi. Theres a useful record of his ministry, which lasted over sixty-five years,
in the D.N.B., vol. xv, p. 34, but to get the full flavour of his adventurous life
by land and sea, his shipwrecks, his sufferings, his escapes, the spirited pages of
his own Journal should be read. It was edited by W. and J. Evans in 1848.
It was upon Dickinson’s advice, 1t may be added, that the vast undertaking
known as Besse’s Suffertngs was put 1n hand.
xvu. So says William Dunnage, the historian of Hitchin. But, according
to the testimony to Janney in Prety Promoted, he struggled back to Cheshire,
where he had been born, and there died, saying, ‘ I have been faithful in my
day and have nothing that troubles my spirit ’ (649. 180).
Iz THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
notes: ‘ I went to Hitchin, being their week-day meeting, which
was very heavy and sleepy a while, but afterwards very open and
tender, and ended in a living sense of the goodness of the Lord.’
On the fifth day of the 5th month, 1733, © having lodged with my
friend John Turner, who was,’ as he notes later on, * of a good old
primitive stock,’ he went in his company to Baldock Meeting,
with whose Friends the Hitchin Friends still constantly ‘ sat
down.’ ‘ Indifferent well,’ says Story on this occasion, ‘ but
might have been better if a certain confident female had not
entertained the auditory too long with certain of the Old Testa-
ment writings reduced by her into songs, which she thought
melodious, and others despised, and canted in that manner ’ (666).
It is not surprising that Story’s Journal was much asked for by
Hitchin Friends when, after his death, it was added to their other
books: £1751. This Meeting is of opinion that two months is
time sufficient for a family to have Thomas Story’s Journal at
once ’” (658).
VIII
PREPARATIVE AND MONTHLY MEETINGS
After 1734 one is not driven to the journals of visiting Ministers
in order to learn about the Hitchin Quakers. Their own books
of record begin in that year, and a glance at the appropriate
section of the Bibliography will show how voluminous these
are (xvili). Here we can stay only to classify their principal
contents; for it is out of the question to follow in any forthright
manner the progress of a Society whose chief concern has been
to abide by its ancient testimony. And first of all a word about
the constitution of the Hitchin Monthly Meeting, its officers and
its organization, for there is more method in the quietism of the
Quaker than a stranger would suspect. Lowest in degree, though
by no means the least useful, came the Preparative or Particular
Meeting, which sifted the business and prepared the way of the
Monthly Meeting. At the Monthly Meeting, made up of several
contiguous Particular Meetings, and existing primarily for dis-
xvin. As the records of the Hitchin Friends are so often unpaginated, I have
thought it more convenient as a reference to give simply the year (and wherever
needful the month and the day) of each passage cited. The denoting number
from the Biblhhography will show whether the extract 1s made from the Prepara-
trve Meeting, Monthly Meeting, or Quarterly Meeting books, and in whose
custody these books of record are.
THE QUAKERS 153
cipline, delegates were set apart to attend the Quarterly Meeting.
There was in addition a Woman’s Meeting and a Meeting for
Ministers and Elders. Each Meeting had its own appointed
clerk to gather up the sense or feeling of the members and bring
them to unity; and to the Monthly Meeting fell the duty of
answering Certain Queries as to the worldly behaviour and spiritual
advancement of the several members and the well-being of the
Society as a whole.
Besides these officers, there were Overseers to look after the
Meeting-House and relieve the poor, and there were Doorkeepers,
and Guides for travelling ministers. As for the Elders, they
exercised a general pastoral oversight and assisted and, if need
be, admonished the Ministers, whose names were ‘ recorded ’” as
such only after long trial and approbation in the three meetings
for worship. Of these, one was accustomed to be held in the
morning of the fifth day of the week, and the other two on the
first day, at nine in the morning and again at two. In the course
of time, 1794, it was found needful to change the hour of the
afternoon meeting, for it was difficult to give a clear answer to
the seventh query of the Quarterly Meeting, which required to
know: ‘ How are Friends preserved from giving way to a Sleepy,
Drowsey Disposition in Meetings of Worship, and 1s care taken
to Advise and Admonish such as are Addicted thereto?’ Finally,
it was agreed ‘to begin the afternoon, first-day meeting at 5
o’clock during the summer to prevent the prevailing heaviness
painfully attending the holding of it at the usual time ’ (658).
There is one other change to be mentioned which more closely
affected the constitution of the Monthly Meeting. On the 26th
of the sixth month, 1734, Joseph Ransom and John Turner
appeared before the Baldock and Royston Monthly Meeting with
the following proposal: ‘ Forasmuch, dear Friends, as it hath
pleased the Lord to remove from us severall of our faithful friends
who was in their day and time very serviceable in our meeting of
Business, our number being now small to carry on the work of
Discipline the Lord may be pleased to requier of us, we conceive
a joyning with you as one monthly meeting would be a strenthning
each other in promoteing Truth and Righteousness in respect to
discipline in our day. In which we salute you and remain:
Mary Ransom, Sarah Skegg, Mercy Crawley, Sarah Hawkins,
Mary Crawley, William Lucas, John Turner, Joseph Ransom,
Joseph Thompson, Thomas Skegg, Josiah Hawkins and Thomas
154 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Skegg, junior ’ (658). On that occasion the Baldock and Royston
members were not disposed to agree to the proposal, but they
proved more willing when it was renewed in 1761; in the interval
they on their part had had to admit ‘ a great deficiency in attending
our week-day meetings, as also a sorrowful Defection in support-
ing our Testimony against Tithes, and observing plainness of
habit and speech.’ The two Monthly Meetings were accordingly
united under the style of Baldock, Royston and Hitchin Monthly
Meeting, which was to be held at each town in rotation on the
last second day of every month, ‘ except in the midst of winter
when the days are short; then it may be held for two or three
months together at Baldock as Friends see convenient.’ Each
Particular Meeting was to hold its own Preparative Meeting as
before, to provide for its own poor and keep its own Meeting-
house and burial-ground in order (679). One by one, Ashwell,
Stotfold, Cranfield, Pulloxhill and Ampthill Meetings were
absorbed into the same Monthly Meeting; on the merger of the
last named in 1798 it was decided that, as Baldock and Royston
Friends had diminished whilst those at Hitchin had increased,
the combined Meetings should thenceforth go under the name of
Hitchin Monthly Meeting (679).
IX
DISCIPLINE AND DISOWNMENTS
With this background in mind, we can now peer more profit-
ably into the books of record, which, be it remembered, are
concerned, not so much with things spiritual as with matters of
order and administration to which any religious society, however
unworldly, is bound to give attention. By one thing the student
of the Hitchin records will be struck—to wit, the paucity of serious
offences in the books of discipline. In these thousands upon
thousands of pages one meets now and then with disownment of
members for drunkenness, fornication, adultery and even highway
robbery. But in an era given over to such sins the Quaker
testimony is plain and sure. Conscious—perhaps too conscious—
that they were a race of men set apart, watched by a world of other
men full of envy, hatred, malice and all uncharitableness, they
took heed to their ways and conducted themselves in a manner
worthy of their high calling. It may be that those who were
THE QUAKERS 155
born into the Society were not tempted as other men. To the
ordinary human being they seemed inhuman in their innocence:
an order of men and women almost as silent and enclosed as
those Carthusians who, if ever they stepped out of the correct
parlour of reason, were amazed and pained to find how irrational
and blind the life of man could be. No doubt it was this deliver-
ance from evil in themselves which led these ninety-and-nine just
persons to be sometimes so hard on that one black sheep of their
own flock who went astray. But it should be remembered that
they had been trained in a hard school; and if discipline was to
mean anything at all it was expedient that one should suffer
rather than the whole Society should perish. In cases like that
of William Hine one has no feeling of pity. ‘ If lenitives will not
do,’ said Penn in a former day, ‘ then coercives must be tried.’
Here was a man ‘ in indigent circumstances, out of work, destitute
of a house, and sick of body, both himself and his wife,’ whom
the Society had helped to maintain more than twenty-seven years.
Yet he and his family were so far ungrateful as ‘ to neglect the
great duty of the public worship of Almighty God in our religious
meetings,’ and so ‘ reproachful in their Christian profession ’ as
to take pleasure in ‘intemperate drinking, lewd conduct and
swearing.’ One of the sons, instead of ‘ appearing to be truely
sensible of the grossness of his immoralities,’ had the effrontery
to ‘ desire no longer to be accounted a member of our Society,’
as though he would disown connection with people who were not
worthy of his society.
That was the last straw. In 1800 the Monthly Meeting took
the unexampled step of disowning the whole family, Mary Hine
the mother, Mary Hine the daughter, William, Thomas, John
and Samuel the sons—all, indeed, save the father, who was by
that time too infirm to attend Meeting and too old to indulge in
immoralities. Yet the forbearance and charity of the Friends
are evident in the judgement that went forth against this household
of evil and unfaith: ‘ Divers opportunities of friendly admonition
having been taken with them respectively but without the desired
effect, this Meeting, having no unity with their deviations from
our religious principles, after long waiting and apprehending itself
clear, deems it incumbent to testify against them, and doth
hereby declare that we do not consider them any longer as
members of our Society; yet desirous for each of them that, ere
the day of gracious visitation be passed over, they may wisely
156 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
close in therewith to their establishment in the unchangeable
truth and the satisfaction of their friends ’ (679). There you
have a righteous judgement indeed, but to disown a member ‘ for
irregular conversation since his marriage, being guilty of swearing,’
and another for ‘the pernicious practice of tale-bearing and
Detraction,’ and another man and wife for ‘ secretly attending the
meetings of the Methodists, wherewith they seemed well-satisfied,’
appears unduly severe. After all, disownment was an almost
irrevocable decree, something quite different from the ‘ suspen-
sion’ which the Baptists and Independents applied to the less
serious offences. Only once or twice was the final sentence
received with any spirit of scoffing. Samuel Manns in 1783
answered back that ‘he did not know it would do him any harm’;
and Abraham Thorne that same year impudently declared that
‘he thought to attend meetings as before and desired his love to
Friends ’ (679). But sooner or later most of these prodigal sons
came to themselves, and discovered that ‘no man gave unto
them ’; for those whom the Quakers had cast out were not readily
received elsewhere. Nor was it possible to arise and go back to
their father’s house, that quiet enclosed garden of innocence
from which they had heen driven. The clerk, with his pen, as
it were a flaming sword, stood in the way. ‘Though they apply
in abject terms of contrition three years, ten years, fifteen years
after disownment, the answer is ever the same: ‘ The time as we
apprehend 1s not yet.’
After the evangelical movement of the eighteen-thirties,
however, the spirit of clemency crept in. ‘There begin to be cases
in which influential or well-to-do offenders, declaring themselves
‘sensible of the great uneasiness I have given to many of the
right-minded of the Society of which I am a member, and
sorrowful that I who ought to have set a good example to others
should have so far fallen short,’ are reinstated. ‘ Having made
due acknowledgment, Friends agree to extenuate the said offence,
so that it may as much as possible be buried in a perpetual
oblivion.’ A more tolerant attitude appears also in the references
to those who left the Society to attend the ‘ worship-houses ’ of
other religious bodies. When Mary Kimpton in 1830 ‘ professed
a satisfaction in having joined the sect called the Church of
England,’ and ‘ arguments were altogether unavailing,’ she was
disowned for ‘ having forsaken our ministry in order to attend
the hireling ministry of the Church of England.’ In 1869, on
THE QUAKERS 157
the other hand, when Samuel Lucas notified the Meeting that he
had become a member of the Church of England, there was no
talk of hireling ministry or sect. Only this: ‘ We would express
our earnest desire for his christian welfare ’ (679).
MARRIAGES ‘ OuT’” AND ‘IN’
Whilst we are considering cases of disownment, it will be
fitting to refer to what Sarah Grubb, who twice visited the
Hitchin Meeting, used to call ‘ this awfull business of marriage ’;
for ‘ marriage out of the Society ’ has caused more disownments
than any other misdoing. The loss of membership, direct and
indirect, on this account at Hitchin is too great and too grievous
to estimate; but we might venture to say that the Meeting has
lost more by marriage than by death. ‘Time was, in the first
days of persecution, as William Dewsbury said, when ‘ those
who marry must be as though they married not, and those who
have husbands as though they had none, for the Lord calls for
all to be offered up’ (xix) (831. 363). But, from the date of the
Toleration Act, when the Society began to settle down, there had
been the strictest enforcement of this rigid, man-made rule.
‘ Rich indeed must be that church which can spare such members
for such a cause’; such is the reflection of John Stephenson
Rowntree in his examination into the decline of Quakerism—
Quakerism, Past and Present, published in 1859, the year in which
the disownment penalty on mixed marriages was at last annulled.
It was a pity, he added, that the Friends, so active in reforming
the criminal code of the nation, should not have sat down to
consider the reformation of their own (853. 2. 949).
In these disorders of human love, these ‘ foolish and unbridled
affections,’ the Quakers came up against something as inflexible
as themselves, something that had existed before the Society, or
any religious society, began. It was, they felt, something
irrational and ungodly. ‘The poets had sung of it as a divine
unreason, but then the poets were not to be trusted. With their
xix. This was said to Lydia, the wife of John Roberts of Siddington,
Gloucestershire, from a branch of whose family the Thompsons of Hitchin are
descended. In 1859 John Thompson of Hitchin brought out a new edition
of John Roberts’s Memozrs, which 1s a httle oasis of good-humour and good
writing 1n the interminable desert of the Quaker Journals.
158 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
own reason, coolly and cautiously employed, they could not
comprehend its violent, irresistible attraction. On the unheeding
ears of lovers their own calm words of advice made not the least
impression. Here is just one out of a hundred similar cases.
In the year 1755 it is brought to the notice of the Preparative
Meeting that Sarah Skegg ‘ is intending to marry one that doth
not profess with us.’ ‘Two members are accordingly desired to
visit her. At a subsequent meeting they report that ‘ she is still
keeping company with the young man, notwithstanding the great
care of Friends in their private visits and advices to both mother
and daughter ’ (658). The Monthly Meeting is then informed,
and two of the Elders, and two women from the Women’s
Meeting, are asked to apply their powers of persuasion. In due
season they return, and their words also return unto them void:
‘They don’t find but that they persist in the same way; wherefore
this meeting think themselves so far clear of them, and leave it
for the present to see the effect of the many advices they have
had ’ (679). In the meantime, fearing lest another visitation
should befall them, Sarah and her young man steal away to a
hireling priest and are married by special licence. And so
another Quaker and her children after her are lost to the Society
of Friends.
In most cases the admonition of the visiting Friends, however
trying to endure, was taken in good part. Phoebe Goodchild,
for example, in 1781, ‘ though she seemed not to have a due
sense of her outgoing, yet spoke respectfully of Friends, whom she
left to their liberty to act as they see meet towards her.’ The
phrasing of the ‘ Testimony of Denial ’ in her case betrays a gleam
of understanding if not of sympathy; it accuses her not so much
of wilful disobedience to the ancient rule of Friends as * of suffering
the affectionate part to prevail in her Mind over the New Principle
of Truth ’ (679). Sometimes, however, the respect due to Elders
and betters was not observed. The offenders were ‘ disposed
to stout it out.2. When Mary Hiorne was visited by Samuel
Spavold and Isaac Gray in 1768, ‘ for encouraging the company
of one of another Society in order for marriage,’ she ‘ informed
them it was gone too far to break off,’ and left them abruptly to
draw what conclusion and comfort they might please. Mary
Brett, being visited in 1778, told them roundly that she was
astonished and pained at their suspicions: ‘ She don’t think of
marrying at her childish age, but don’t incline to relinquish her
THE QUAKERS 159
acquaintance with her neighbours; says she don’t keep company
with any young man in particular.’ When John Tallwin in 1781
persisted in visiting Mary Stallybrass, even after her mixed
marriage had been consummated, she was brazen enough to
* yustify her conduct, saying she might have done worse had she
married in the Society ’ (679).
There is one case, however, in which the incessant labour of
Friends, helped out by the fickleness of man’s desire, was appa-
rently successful; but it took three years to accomplish. In the
third month, 1792, John Pryor and Henry Kite, ‘ having had
frequent opportunities with John Neaves,’ report that ‘ altho’ at
one time these seemed likely to prove affectual, yet he hath since
unwarily renewed the connection, and thinks he cannot with
honour become disengaged.’ The following month Rudd
Wheeler and William Lucas were appointed to visit Neaves.
By this time there was a slight sign of relenting. He still felt
“not at liberty to retract, yet seemed disposed to wait to see
whether time might not convince both parties of the Impropriety
of their being married whilst of different religious persuasions.’
Two months later, ‘on another opportunity being taken,’ the
young man appears still ‘ more sensible of his error and desirous
of extricating himself in a manner consistent with justice towards
the young woman if possible and agreeable to the advice of his
friends.’ In the eleventh month, 1792, Rudd Wheeler ‘ has some
encouragement to hope the subject of complaint appears in a
probable way of being removed.’ In the sixth month, 1793, the
young man admits that ‘ the connection between him and the
young woman was not wholly broken off, nor could he say how
it might terminate, yet expressed a desire of its coming to that
issue.’ In the third month, 1794, ‘ it seems likely to terminate.’
The last step is not recorded till the first month, 1795. ‘ He now
considers himself clear of the connection for which he was visited
by the meeting, and requests a certificate on his removal to
Melksham in the compass of the Wiltshire Monthly Meeting’ (679).
Here in this solitary instance you have the Quaker strain in
John Neaves responding slowly but surely to suggestion. As a
rule, however, the visits of the Friends only precipitated matters ;
the parties married in haste and perhaps repented at leisure. By
one cynical student of Quaker records it has been insinuated that
there are ample signs of contrition evident about a year after these
mixed marriages. In this he is undoubtedly mistaken, because
160 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
after disownment there was no more to be said, and no more to
be known. There may be two or three applications for rein-
statement in the Hitchin records, but only once is any degree of
contrition shown: ‘ The great uneasiness my past very Blameable
conduct has given me,’ wrote William Pryor in 1757, ‘ and a very
sincere sorrow for the same, is the cause of my making this
public acknowledgment. I heartily wish I and all who like me
have done amiss may for the future cease to do evil and learn to
do well ’ (679).
Of the unmixed or regular marriages of Friends there is need
to write but little. ‘They were carefully and prayerfully arranged,
and they seem for the most part to have resulted in an unmixed
blessing. As soon as the parties had laid, first before the Women’s
Meeting and then before the Men’s Meeting, their intention of
taking each other in marriage ‘ if the Lord permit,’ and had pro-
duced their parents’ or guardians’ consent, two Friends from each
Meeting were ‘ desired to make the necessary enquiries into the
clearness of their conduct and conversation.’ If one of the
parties belonged to another Meeting, a certificate of ‘ freedom
from engagements respecting marriage’ was required. ‘Then,
after an interval of waiting and watching, the intention was laid
before the Meeting a second time, and if no objection was raised
“liberty was given to proceed’ ; two Friends being deputed to
see that the marriage, according to the simple ceremonial of the
Society, was ‘ orderly conducted ’ (853. 1. 187-9). It may be
added that the Society from the outset testified against the
marriage of first-cousins (703. 68). On account of their own
“remissness in early admonishing of them to desist in their
intentions,’ the Monthly Meeting had ‘ Condescended to permit ’
a marriage of this nature between two of its more prominent
members at Baldock in 1727; but ‘ this must not be pleaded as
a precedent; and Friends are to take care for the future to inspect
into all occurrences of the kind and labour to circumvent and put
an end thereto in the beginning or first appearance.’ As a further
precaution the members were reminded of a Yearly Meeting
Minute of 1709, which states that ‘ it is not safe to encourage the
marriage even of Second Cousins in any of our meetings ’ (xx)
(679).
xx. In 1883 the marriage of first-cousins was at last allowed, though st:ll
strongly disapproved.
THE QUAKERS 161
XI
THE TESTIMONY AGAINST WAR
Let us pass now by a not unnatural transition from love to
war. Here, at any rate, the ancient and honourable testimony of
Friends was faithfully maintained. Never did any difficulty arise
in answering the Yearly Meeting query on this head (703. 143).
And here is the common form of reply: ‘ Friends are faithful
against bearing arms or being concerned in the Militia, in priva-
teers or armed vessels, or dealing in prize-goods, except that a few
have unwarily paid a rate for the Army; and one instance of being
concerned in a Hitchin benefit club, which has some rules for
providing substitutes for the Militia, and so inconsistent with
any under our name to be thus concerned.’ Some Friends did
not feel the same scruple about paying commutation money, but
when in 1778 John Lucas, who as Clerk to the Monthly Meeting
should have set an example of suffering, was found to have paid
£2 12s. 6d. for a substitute, he was called upon to resign his
office and was soon afterwards disowned. The only other serious
offence occurred in 1797, when Joseph Hagger ‘ enlisted in a
Military Corps lately raised in the county called a provisional
force of Cavalry, and took the Oath usual in such cases. This
being in open violation of our ancient Christian ‘Testimonies
against War and Oaths, we deem it incumbent on us to testify
against him and consider him no longer a member of our
Society ’ (679).
It is interesting to observe the care that was taken to instruct
and support Friends in what Barclay called ‘ the hardest and most
perfect part of Christianity.” On the eleventh of the ninth
month, 1745, when the Young Pretender was marching south
after his victory at Prestonpans, there was ‘ received at this
meeting a written half-sheet of paper, advising Friends how to act
consistant with our principles in this critical conjuncture.’ The
makeshift served for that occasion, but the Society resolved to
be more ready for the next. In 1746 it is recorded that * Isaac
Sharples brought in a book titled Doctrine of the Quakers respecting
fighting, which is to be for the meeting’s use. Cost 3d. William
Lucas hath it.2. In 1762 the opinion of ‘ an eminent Counsellor ’
was taken respecting the Militia so that members might know
exactly where they stood (679). For the future the Clerk was to
VOL. II. L
162 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
bring each Act of Parliament relating to recruiting and war service
to the notice of the meeting. As soon as war was declared, the
Lords-Lieutenant, the justices and the recruiting officers were
to be told precisely what the attitude of Friends would be; and
the King’s officers were to know that they would pay no taxes for
war purposes, not even when these were mixed up or disguised
with other taxes. Friends were to have no part or lot with the
Rejoicing Nights, so called, and were instructed to put out their
lights on the celebration of any victory, shutter their windows,
and stay within (703. 36). If it could be done without a breach
of the peace, they were to make their voices heard against all such
unchristian jubilations. In 1780, for example, they submitted
an ‘ Address to the Magistrates of Hitchin on considering the
unprecedented proceedings in this town by way of rejoicing on
the news of the taking of Charlestown in South Carolina ’ (689).
They were to be careful also ‘ not to seek or accept profit, or
enrich themselves by the commerce and other circumstances
dependent on war.’ It was a popular charge against the Quakers
of the period when this last advice was issued, 1798, that, being
largely concerned in farming and milling and baking, they had
secured a monopoly of the essential articles of food, and had run
up the prices so that it made life difficult for the poor. On the
occasion of the bread riots in Baldock in 1795, several Friends’
shops had been sacked. Papers and pamphlets of denial had been
widely circulated, but it was many years before this calumny died
away (853. 2. 817).
One observes also in these accounts the care taken of those
Friends who had suffered by their testimony against war. In
1746 £3 5s. was collected in the Hitchin Meeting ‘ towards the
releafe of the poor Friends that suffered in the late rebellion ’ (658).
From several later entries one learns that members were reim-
bursed the fines and losses incurred by them ‘ for refusing to
convey soldieers baggage,’ for ‘ windows broken in rejoicing
nights,’ and for ‘ distraints about the Militia.’ By the nineteenth
century, however, the testimony against war had undergone a
process of development. Friends were thinking less about their
own. sufferings and more about those of the combatants, of
dependents, of the world at large. In every recent war they have
been mercifully engaged in relief or ambulance work; and their
genius for organization has been everywhere acknowledged.
James Hack Tuke of Hitchin was one of the seven Commissioners
ELg1 ‘kajqoyy sowef Aq sunuied & woly
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‘
THE QUAKERS 163
on the Field entrusted with relief work in connection with the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870 (853. 2. 755).; and there was hardly
a member who did not help to bind up the wounds of the Great
War of 1914-1918. As one of them said in writing to the author
of this book, after grappling for two years in Holland with the
human wreckage of the war: ‘ We are not despondent, never
think that, though I sometimes wonder if anyone could glimpse
the sum-total of misery caused here by the war and live. If
Orpheus had stopped singing to the souls in hell, he would have
become as one of them.’
However much absorbed in mitigating the ravages of war,
Friends have never lost sight of their concern for its total abolition.
In season and out of season, as ‘ faithful soldiers in the Lamb’s
warfare,’ they have worked with this end in view; no amount of
failure has made them falter or despair. Moreover, 1n their
analysis of this deadly evil they have gone down to the very roots.
When the Treaty of Ryswick was signed in 1697, John Crook,
a leading member of the original Monthly Meeting, published
a pamphlet entitled The way to a Lasting Peace, in which he urged,
that war being ended, that another war should be waged to
destroy men’s corruptions and lusts out of which wars commonly
proceed (851. 613). One after another the Ministers of this
Meeting have proclaimed George Fox’s gospel of peace, which is
no other than the gospel of Jesus Christ: ‘ God is not the author
of confusion but of peace ’—It is for men ‘ to live in the virtue
of that life and power which takes away the occasion of all wars ’”
—‘ In the peaceable mind and spirit dwell, for the patient sufferer
weareth the crown, and hath the victory at last, and not the hasty,
ageravating, revengeful, killing and fighting spirit’ (829. 1. 68).
Those who founded the Peace Society here after the Battle of
Waterloo took as their motto the Yearly Meeting Minute of 1757,
which is sealed with the very same spirit of truth: ‘ Let a holy
care rest upon us to abide in that power, which gives dominion
over the hopes and fears that arise from the concerns of an
unstable world, and tend, as they are admitted into the mind, to
lessen the trust on that Rock which is immovable’ (703. 201).
That holy care is still a main concern of this Society, which was
never more alive than now to the need of preserving the integrity
of its testimony against war. For, as Rufus Jones has finely said,
‘if Friends are to challenge the whole world, and claim the right
to continue in the ways of peace whilst everybody else is fighting,
164 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
they must reveal the fact that they are worthy of peace, and that
they bear in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus ’ (853. 718).
XIT
THE QUERIES CONCERNING 'TRADE
No less care was taken by the Society to preserve its members
from the ‘ contagion of the world’s slow stain ’; the contaminations
of public life; the snares and perils of trade. Of the twofold
dangers which Fox himself had foreseen in those who professed
truth, one was ‘ of old people’s going into earthly things.’ It
was a lasting “concern upon his spirit,’ and upon that of the
Yearly Meetings which carried on his work. ‘ Circumscribed
even aS we are more than many,’ they say in a letter of advice,
‘it is not unusual in our pursuit of the things of this life for our
gain and our convenience to clash with our testimony ’ (703. 198).
And again, ‘ We do not condemn industry, which we believe to be
not only praiseworthy but indispensable. It is the desire of great
things, and the engrossment of time and attention from which we
desire that all our dear Friends may be redeemed ’ (703. 200).
The year in which Hitchin Monthly Meeting was set up, 1688,
another letter of more direct advice was received from Yearly
Meeting: ‘ Advised that none launch into worldly trading and
worldly business beyond what they can manage honourably and
with reputation; so that they may keep their words with all men,
that their yea may prove yea indeed, and their nay, nay: and that
they use few words in their dealings, lest they bring dishonour
to the truth’ (703. 195). It was by their direction, too, that the
paper which Fox had written in 1661, The Line of Righteousness
and Justice stretched forth over all Merchants, was to be read in
Meeting every year (851. 561).
There were queries also upon which they required to be
satisfied: ‘ Are Friends just in their dealings and punctual in
fulfilling their engagements?’ ‘ Do Friends take care to settle
their Affairs in due time by wills or otherwise? Do none over-
charge themselves with Business to the hindrance of their
Service? Do you stand clear in our Testimony against defrauding
the King of his Customs, Duties or Excise, or in dealing in goods
suspected to be run?’ (703. 143). The ‘ yea’ of the Hitchin
THE QUAKERS 165
Meeting to these interrogations has never to be ‘ nay,’ ‘ except
in the case of Stamps for Receipts, in which Friends do not yet
stand clear.” More and more as time went on the Ministers,
breaking away from traditional Quietism, gave practical expression
to the same concern. ‘ The Gospel is good for the life that now
is as well as for the life to come.” ‘They were to see to it that the
word of a Friend had more value than a Merchant’s bond. ‘ I
believe Quakerism to be Christianity received into the heart,’
said Esther Seebohm, ‘ and suffered so to operate there as to purify
the springs of action, and thus to influence all the conduct of the
life ’ (712. N.S. 24. 221). ‘ For many years,’ protested ‘Thomas
Shillitoe, a leading Hitchin Minister, of whom more will be said
anon, “for many years I have esteemed it a reproach to such
professing Christians as we are, when any of our members have
left behind them large sums of money of their own accumulation.
O what a cloud has it brought over the very best actions, however
conspicuous they may have stood in Society ’ (743. 1. 216).
Even worse is that ‘ accumulation for the sake of accumulation
in order that parents may enable their children to make a display,
a figure of elegance in the world. O my friends, I go mourning
on my way under a powerful sense hereof.’ He would have them
go back to the austerity of the first Friends, who ‘ were mercifully
redeemed from the world and its spirit, and were enabled to
count all things appertaining to this life but as dross and dung,
so that they might win Christ.’ For his own part, he was not
slow to practise what he preached. Early in his career he surren-
dered his leasehold property into the hands of his landlord
because he felt that the covenants were an encumbrance to the
free course of his spirit (743. 1.74). Again, in 1821, before
leaving for his long mission to Holland, Norway, Germany and
France, duty pointed to his parting with his cottage and furniture
at Hitchin. ‘ My cottage at Highbury, Hitchin, had possessed
many charms; I had laboured and toiled to make it a comfortable
abode for our declining years, hoping to have kept it for our
residence, until we were taken to the house appointed for all
living. Nature had many strugglings to endure before it made
that free-will offering called for; but, believing it to be the most
effectual way to have my mind freed from worldly cares, I yielded.
Feeling thus loosened from this earthly shackle, I made the
necessary preparations for my journey ’ (743. I. 230).
Again and again in Hitchin Monthly Meeting Shillitoe and
166 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
other judicious Ministers warned Friends against ‘ hazardous
enterprises, and other ‘ pernicious practices of raising and
circulating fictitious kinds of paper credit ’ (703. 1967). They
were to refrain from being concerned in lotteries (xxi) or in illegal
dealings in the Government securities, ‘ which is a species of
gaming,’ or in the ‘ vile and wicked practices of stock-jobbing and
bubbles ’ (703. 54). It was advisable for each member to have
‘an annual inspection into his affairs.’ Those who kept shops
must observe the honourable custom of Friends and have ‘ fixed
prices’ for their goods. There must be no ‘acceptance of
gratuities, no purchasing on credit.’ Whenever possible Friends
should trade with their own people. At all cost, the ‘ broad
character of covetousness,’ prevailing in the outer world of
business, must be avoided. ‘There must be nothing in short but
* plain and straightforward dealing ’ (703. 195-200).
Certainly the Overseers of Hitchin Meeting showed themselves
severe and competent dealers. They made a most judicious
arrangement with the landlord of the Swan, whereby, in considera-
tion of his being appointed the sole house for the purpose, Friends’
horses were put up at half the customary cost: 5d. per night at
grass, or 7d. with hay and corn. ‘They persuaded one Peirce to
sweep the Quakers’ Alley for only half a crown the quarter.
They cut the hedge of the burial-ground themselves, sooner than
pay the exorbitant charge demanded. They took ros. from
George Paternoster for putting three sheep and four lambs into
the same for five months, and proposed to double the rent when
he put in a few more (658). But not all the members were fired
by their thrifty example. The affairs of William Manns, 1772,
are found ‘to be in a perplexed and disagreeable situation,’ and
two Friends are ‘ desired to visit him therefor and advise him as
they may see necessary, in order that there may be a fair and just
distribution of his effects to his creditors.’ A testimony has to
issue against John Brown in 1805, ‘ for having dishonourably
fallen into insolvent circumstances’ ; and in 1868 one of the
Elders has to be disciplined ‘for unwise and unwarrantable
speculation in oil, whereby he failed to meet his pecuniary
engagements ’ (679).
xxi. As a young man Thomas Shillitoe gave up a profitable clerkship in a
bank because he was expected to purchase lottery tickets for country correspon-
dents.
THE QUAKERS 167
XITI
LIBERALITY AND PUBLIC SPIRIT
There are perhaps ten failures recorded amongst Hitchin
Friends in the course of their history. ‘The great majority trod
in the paths of carefulness, and prospered, some modestly, and
some exceedingly. Indeed, Shillitoe accused them of failure of
another kind: ‘ They have obeyed all the commandments of
the Gospel, save that one great command about laying up
treasures * (743. 1.216). Still, they were not extravagant, and
what little money they spent they laid out wisely; one might even
say liberally.
The books of record are full of their benefactions. The
greater part goes back, of course, to their own people. ‘There are
the sick and poor of the Meeting to be provided for. Some
receive weekly doles from a fund supplied by the bequests of
Friends who were well to do, e.g. Elizabeth Lucas, who by her
will, dated 1754, gave ‘ the sum of £5 to be distributed amongst
the poor belonging to the Meeting House of Dissenters called
Quakers situate at Hitchin.” Some are provided for privately
by prospering Friends. William Lucas’s household account books
are full of alms-giving, which, like a true Quaker, he hides from
the sight of men. ‘To hide them more carefully he enters them
in French: ‘1794. ‘To Cash don un ami suffrisant, [2 2s. od.’
Some hopeless cases are maintained in the Friends’ own
Workhouse, and their children are apprenticed ‘ upon liking ’ to
Quaker masters. William Hine and James Gripper, being on
probation as apprentices, indulge in ‘ evil communications and
lewd conduct,’ and have to be placed elsewhere (679). ‘Those
“ distempered and discomposed’ Friends who have lost their
reason are sent to the York Retreat. ‘The orphan children are
dispatched for their ‘ guarded education ’ to Friends’ Schools at
Ackworth and Sibford; or a place is found for them in Abbott’s,
or Woodhead’s, or Isaac Brown’s academies at Hitchin. Along
with subscriptions to all these, one lights upon exotic items, and
still more generous gifts, to ‘ the improvement and civilization of
the Indian Natives in North America,’ and ‘ for the support of
fugitive slaves ’ (658).
It has been charged against most Nonconforming bodies that,
whilst rigorous enough in the affairs of their little Bethels and
168 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
mightily concerned about the New Jerusalem, they have not
troubled overmuch about the towns in which they lived. ‘ Here,’
they have declared, ‘is no abiding city. We are sojourners as
were our fathers before us in a strange land.’ That could not
truthfully be said about the Quakers. In this parish, at any rate,
they were numerous enough and rich enough to count; at one
time they were not so much a select body as the community itself.
As bankers, as philanthropists, as landowners, their money, their
charity, their enterprise were behind everything that was. The
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A HITCHIN BEGGAR MAN
eighteenth-century Hitchin was brought up in their leading-
strings. It is not often remembered to their credit nowadays,
but it was they who founded the hospitals, the libraries, the
friendly societies, the penny savings banks; they who gave land
for new roads and open spaces; they who projected the Corn
Exchange (xxii) and the Old Town Hall. So closely, indeed, did
xxu. The architect of this unsightly building was the well-known Quaker
William Beck, whose grandfather, Thomas Barton Beck, lived at Wratten
Cottage, Hitchin.
THE QUAKERS 169
they identify themselves with the development of Hitchin that it
became like unto themselves. 'To this day, as strangers go about
the streets, the thought instinctively rises: ‘How prim, old-
fashioned and Quakerly a town.’
One would incline to say, nevertheless, that it is in their
concern for the poor that Friends have rendered the most valued
service. By their habit of thrift, their practical bent of mind,
and their spiritual unity with those in trouble they acquired just
the qualities that tell. It was not their way ‘to whine about
metaphysical distresses, when there was so much want and hunger
in the world.’ And, if one may borrow another passage out of
the Posthuma Christiana, p. 23, of William Crouch, an early
Quaker, of London, ‘ they sat not still untill the cry of the poor
came to their houses; but when they did suppose or discern a
want of help, their charity led them to enquire into their condi-
tions and minister to their necessities.” After all, they had as a
Society been specially devoted to this work. ‘ It is desired,’ runs
an early minute of 1696, ‘ that such among the Friends as are
endowed with plenty of outward substance be timely and tenderly
advised to do good therewith in their day and generation, especially
with regard to the poor; that the tokens of your charity may be
good precedents to generations to come’ (703. 56). One after
another the testimonies of Hitchin Friends show that this counsel
has had its perfect way. What is certified of Mary Laundy in
1768 might be certified of all: ‘ Very exemplary and inoffensive
in her life and conversation, she hath been a diligent and faithful
Labourer amongst us as long as ability of Body did permit; for,
far from being Tinctured with Covetousness, too often the
attendant of old age, she cheerfully and liberally contributed to
the relief of the Necessitous both in her own and in other
Societies ’ (656. 2. 331).
XIV
PLAINNESS OF LIVING
Having studied the advices to Friends in trade and public
affairs, we may now consider those which fenced in their private
lives. ‘If we as a people are to bear a sufficient testimony to
the pure principle of light and life,’ declared Shillitoe, “ we must
be redeemed not only from the treasures of the world, but also
from its pleasures ’ (743. 1.208). He was thinking of the
170 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Yearly Meeting Advice of 1724, which enjoined Friends ‘to
content themselves with such a plain way and manner of living
as is most conducive to that tranquillity of mind that is requisite
to a religious conduct through this troublesome world.’ But the
Queries are still more searching and specific. ‘Do Friends
endeavour by example and precept to train up their children,
servants, and those under their care in a religious life and conversa-
tion, consistent with our Christian profession, in the frequent
reading of the Holy Scriptures, and in plainness of speech,
behaviour and apparel?’ ‘ Are Friends careful to avoid all
vain sports and places of diversion, gaming, all unnecessary fre-
quenting of taverns and other public houses, and other intemper-
ance ?’ (703. 143). As one lukewarm Hitchin member said:
‘It is all warning and prohibition; everything is ‘‘ nay’”’ and
never “‘ yea.”’’ It reminded him of Phoebe Lucas, who declined
no less than seventeen eligible offers of marriage, because she had
lost the capacity of saying ‘ Yea ’ (647. 3).
So with the rest of them. They were always declining,
declining. ‘They were told they must not use ‘ unbecoming
gestures in cringing and bowing the body by way of saluta-
tion ’ (703. 21). They must not say ‘ you” to a mere, particular
person, ‘ contrary to the pure, plain and simple language of truth,’
but ‘ thee and thou.’ They must not yield the honour of the hat
to men, whatever their rank and position; these titled and deco-
rated creatures are as nothing in the sight of God. ‘They must
hold themselves free from superstition in the calling of the days
of the week after the idolatrous practice of their Saxon ancestors,
and the months of the year after that of the Romans (703. 30-6).
They must not suffer romances, play-books and other vain and
idle pamphlets in their houses; such tend to corrupt the minds
of youth (703. 11). In choosing or building their houses they
must avoid ‘ running into high, lofty fabrics to gratify a proud
and curious mind.’ ‘Their furniture should be free of garnishings
and ornamental work. ‘Twisted banisters, swelling chimney-
pieces, large-mouldings or finishings of panel, veneered cabinets,
large looking-glasses, curtains with valences, and all ‘ curious or
nice things ’ were to be ‘ done away.’ In their gardens, too, they
must take heed ‘ against superfluity and too great niceness ; instead
of keeping to plainness and the serviceable part’ (851. 507-510).
At marriages they are warned to avoid all ‘ running into excessive,
sumptuous, and costly entertainments’ ; and at funerals, ‘ the
¢
THE QUAKERS 171
vain custom of wearing or giving mourning, and all extravagant
expenses about the interment of the dead’ (703. 64. 116).
Those who judge it to be their duty to vote at elections are to
perform their office orderly and then depart; ‘not behaving
themselves unseemly,’ as did Joseph Tranter of Hitchin Meeting,
who in 1790 was ‘ put under dealing’ for ‘ suffering himself to
be carried about the town on men’s shoulders and joining others
in the confused practices of such times ’” (679).
‘ The salvation of the world,’ observed Baxter, ‘ doth not lie
upon these silly cavils ’ (831. 496). But though the world has
come to smile at these characteristics of the Friends, a wise man
will not smile but endeavour to understand. Not unlikely he
will come in the end to agree with Rufus Jones that ‘ it was in its
origin not an outward rule impressed but an inner life expressed,’
and with W. C. Braithwaite that ‘ under the conditions of that
age the main message of Friends could not have been uttered in
its purity and force if they had shrunk from giving it fearless
application to these parts of life ’ (831. 495). In 1860 the clause
in the fourth query respecting plainness in speech, behaviour and
apparel was omitted (853. 2. 951); and one after another the
Society in its wisdom has abandoned the remaining singularities
of Friends (xxiii). Not always with the concurrence of the older
school of its members. ‘Thomas Shillitoe, for example, who was
always praising the pure principle and strict demeanour of the
early Friends, could not bear that one jot or tittle of their testi-
mony should be taken away. If anything he was for adding to
it; for he had a way of applying the general advices of Yearly
Meeting to all sorts of particular cases for which they were never
intended. He could prove that it was an infringement of George
Fox’s teaching to take a pinch of snuff. It followed from another
chapter and verse that we must ‘ take up the cross and avoid
reading political publications and newspapers; keep that ear
closed which will be itching to hear the news of the day. It 1s
xxi. Except, perhaps, 1n 1ts refusal to recognize those once distinguished,
and now meaningless, titles of ‘ Mr ’ and ‘ Esquire’, a wholesome addiction to
plainness, which I also have adopted throughout this History; not without
rebuke from some who found themselves deprived of their usual dignity in
my List of Subscribers. I was pleased to see how particular William Lucas
of Hitchin was in requiring to be called by his name and nothing but his name.
In 1831, when he received a business letter from one John Iliffe with an
‘ Esquire ’ after his name, he erased the offending title from the envelope and
noted in his reply: ‘As a common tradesman I have no pretensions to the
title of Esquire.’
172 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
the only way for us to experience our minds to be preserved
tranquil amongst all the turnings and over-turnings that may be
permitted to take place, when the measure of iniquity may be
filled up.’ This was a cross too hard for some to bear. They
dearly liked their papers. It was essential, urged those of them
in trade, to have these ‘ channels of information ’ (743. 1. 224).
And were they to be condemned if, like worthy Edward Pease,
they succumbed now and then to the temptation of reading The
Illustrated London News, ‘ one of the attractive fascinations of
the present time,’ 1851 (824. 297). It was Shillitoe again who
reproved the younger Friends for their unsanctified love of music
and their ‘itch’ in particular to play the piano. Had not Fox
declared that music was ‘ almost as dangerous as gunpowder’?
Why, then, play with it? At best the piano was but a tinkling
cymbal, and at the worst it was too grievous to be borne. In spite
of the old man’s jeremiads, however, the younger Friends would
have their way. Alice Moule, daughter of Oswald Foster, has
described to the author of this book how she was once taken on
tiptoe to the top of Joseph Lucas’s house by one of the younger
generation and there secretly shown the first piano of the Hitchin
Friends, and allowed to listen for a brief while to its unholy music.
‘Old Joe,’ as he was called, did not even know of its existence
(647. 5).
XV
RESTRAINTS ON RECREATION
The restraints on ‘ recreation and apparel’ are interesting
enough to be considered separately; for, though superficially
concerned with ‘ petty cavils,’ they have their source in the deeper
issues of life. ‘The recreations allowed by the Society of Friends
are of the kind that have been described as ‘ calm and gentle,
and not more full of relaxation than void of fury.’ In practice
there was a distinction to be drawn between recreation and diver-
sion. Diversion was of the Devil. In a tract entitled Sentiments
of Pious and Eminent Persons on the Pernicious Tendency of
Dramatic Entertainments and other Vain Amusements, which was
circulated amongst the Hitchin members in 1815, William
Law (xxiv) is commended for his plain speaking on this point:
xxiv. For his association and co-operation with the Society see Stephen
Hobhouse’s William Law and Eighteenth-Century Quakerism, 1927.
THOMAS SHILLITOE PREACHING OUTSIDE A GIN-SHOP AT SMITHFIELD, DUBLIN, 1811
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
THE QUAKERS 173
‘Though we only call them diversions, they do the whole work
of idolatry and infidelity, and fill people with so much blindness
and hardness of heart, that they neither live by wisdom, nor feel
the want of it, but are content to play away their lives with scarce
any attention to the approaching scenes of death, judgment, and
eternity.’ In their witness against diversion the Hitchin ministers
were no less clear. This vale of tears, which was to some a
playing-field and to others a battle-ground, was to them a place
for sufferings. ‘ Why,’ asks Shillitoe of a minister in another
Society, ‘ why do you sew pillows under the arms of your congrega-
tion and cry Peace, peace, when there is no peace?’ (743. 1. 236).
For his own part he spurned and despised the garnishings of life,
its delicacies and its diversions. He could sleep soundly enough
on the bare earth without the aid of pillows; he found no affliction
in a diet of bread and water. When he sat down in the drinking-
houses of Dublin in 1811, he hungered and thirsted for the signs
of righteousness in those around him, but not for anything else.
They looked on him and were affronted. ‘ ‘Taking their seats
by me, they called for beer, and declared I should not leave the
room until I drank with them; on my refusing, they called for
spirits; on my refusing to take their spirits, one of them called
for bacon, saying he would know who I was; whether I could eat
swine’s flesh; bawling out, trembling, and looking pale with
anger, he demanded to know my mission for going about to try
to convert the people, and if I had been ordained.’ At another
tavern ‘ a big dirty-looking man, who was taking his pint of beer
at the bar, after filling his mouth with the beer, squirted in my
face, telling me to take that for Jesus Christ’s sake ’ (743. 132, 147).
The same unflinching testimony was borne by Mercy Ransom, who
had laboured in the vilest quarters of London, and who knew the
vicious pleasures of that city through and through. It is in these
words she sums up the whole matter in 1820: ‘ I have long seen
that upon all earthly enjoyments this inscription is written, “* They
shall fail ’’ ’ (714. 78).
How, then, were Friends to exercise their bodies and relax
their minds? ‘That was the question. Not in hunting (xxv)
xxv. Clarkson, 1n his Portraiture of the Christian Professton and Practice of
the Soctety of Friends, has a word to say about hunting: ‘ It has been a matter
of astonishment to some how men who have the powers of reason can waste
their time in galloping after dogs in a wild and tumultuous manner, to the
detriment often of their neighbours and to the hazard of their own lives’
(Edn. 1847, p. 36).
174 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
or in shooting, most assuredly: ‘ The leisure of those whom Provi-
dence hath permitted to have a competence of worldly goods is
but ill filled up with such amusements. Let our leisure rather be
employed in serving our neighbours, and not in destroying the
creatures of God for our amusement.’ So runs a Yearly Meeting
Minute of 1795 (703. 25). Still less in play-houses and theatres:
‘ Those nurseries of debauchery and wickedness are the burden
and grief of the sober part of other Societies, as well as of our
own ’; and again: ‘ May we never be imposed on by the common
but delusive sentiment that literary merit and accurate knowledge
of the human heart can atone for the fatal wounds which inno-
cence, delicacy, and religion too frequently suffer from these
performances ’ (703. 217). Not in horse-racing either. ‘This
had been the ruin of John Morris of Hitchin Meeting in 1807:
‘So far has he deviated from the plain, self-denying practice of
our Christian Profession and entered into the Spirit of the World,
as to join therewith in divers of its vain customs and amusements,
such as attending places of diversion such as Horse-Racing and
other insnaring things.’ Morris admitted going to races, ‘ but
as there was no gaming practised thought they were harmless.
. . . As he felt no uneasiness in attending places of public diver-
sion he should not refrain therefrom.’ He was accordingly cast
out (679). Nor might they ‘ draw out their minds into the foolish
and wicked pastimes with which this age aboundeth, particularly
balls ’ (703. 217). In an especial manner ‘ the beloved youth are
urged to curb inordinate desires in their infancy, when the victory
will be more easy; but, if ye shrink from the conflict or assign the
victory to the tempter, ye may be unable to resist in your further
progress through life temptations which in the fresh morning of
your day ye would have held in abhorrence ’ (703. 219).
XVI
INNOCENT DIVERTISEMENTS
By the process of elimination we are coming to see what are
those recreations which, in Robert Barclay’s test, ‘ do not disagree
with Christian silence, gravity and sobriety.’ According to his
notion, the ‘ innocent divertisements which may sufficiently serve
for relaxation of the mind’ are these: ‘ Such as for Friends to
visit one another ; to hear or read history; to speak soberly of the
present or past transactions; to follow after gardening; to use
THE QUAKERS 175
geometrical and mathematical experiments, and such other things
It will be noticed that Barclay is not
of this nature ” (645. 370).
much concerned over Brother Ass the Body, though in the ‘ busy
idleness of life in gardens ’ (xxvi) he could be kept out of mischief.
According to
Mercy Ransom is far more practical and stern.
Samuel Scott, who listened to her at Meeting on the thirteenth,
5th mo. 1781, ‘she recommended occupations which were
Mi
Ain
HITCHIN QUAKERESSES AT CHESS
diligently and prosperously practised by our worthy ancestors,
viz. digging and begging: a lively and pertinent opening, on which
she was enlarged with strength and propriety ’ (708. 30). But it
was not until 1883 that the Society recognized ‘ the Christian duty
of securing for ourselves and our children a due measure of bodily
xxvi. Hannah Sewell has a sly hit at Quaker gardening in a letter written
in 1857 from the house she had just taken at Hitchin: ‘I had a long, low
time in the garden,’ she says, ‘ before I could come at anything like a settlement.’
176 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
exercise, without which neither our physical nor mental faculties
can be preserved in a healthy condition ’ (858. 85). But in the
interval the members had been extending the list of ‘ innocent
divertisements ” on their own account. Some had taken to
cutting silhouettes; some had taken to chess; some had taken to
bowls, a game formerly denounced by Friends as though it were
the pastime of habitual drunkards. Others went afoot down the
green lanes of pleasant Hertfordshire. ‘They were great walkers;
Thomas Shillitoe thought nothing of thirty and forty miles a day.
Moreover, in walking they need waste no time, for each Friend
after the bent of his own mind could botanize, geologize, or orni-
thologize as he journeyed along. Some ventured farther afield.
In 1812 Joshua Ransom and Richard Day pilgrimaged to Swarth-
moor Hall, that they might see before they died ‘ the two ebony
bedposts, the dish and lock of hair belonging to George Fox’
—a strangely superstitious practice for these unsuperstitious men,
but they got some needful exercise thereby. Others, including
the Lucas family, were so far infected with the spirit of the world
as to visit Brighton, then known as Brighthelmstone, every year;
‘a place,’ as described by Richard Beck, who married Rachel
Lucas, ‘ of a great many genteel people walking backwards and
forwards, making it a sort of Parade’ (809. 29). But, for the
most part, Friends did not approve this walking to and fro upon
the earth. ‘They and their fathers before them had held with
Pascal that all man’s troubles arose from his not being able to
keep quiet in a room. ‘ All the glory I pretend in my life,’ said
Montaigne, ‘ is that I have lived quietly.’ Here again they agreed,
though it gave them no occasion for glory. Instead of ‘ running
into company ’ and scattering their lives at random, they stayed
at home in ‘ quiet collectedness.’ By strict care and domestic
discipline they studied to keep in their private houses the same
stillness and calm that pervaded their Meeting-houses. What
Penn called the ‘noisy crowd and incumbering Hurry of the
world ’ was not suffered to intrude. Such was their attitude to
life; and it was one which as far back as 1672 the Yearly Meeting
in its Epistle had approved: ‘ So keep every one of ye in the peace-
able wisdom, and out of all extremes and whirlings, which tend to
draw out and unsettle people’s minds.’ If their young men and
their maidens could not live by peaceable wisdom alone; if recrea-
tion there must be, was there not plenty of the homelier sort? A
water-colour painting, it maybe, to work up from a rough sketch
THE QUAKERS 177
at Oughton Head or Redcoats Green (xxvii); an essay on The
Pleasures of Retirement for the Hitchin Essay Society; an acrostic
to devise for the Hitchin Acrostic Club. It was essential each
evening that the day’s diary should be written up, and written
up it was. In Richard Beck’s diary are several amusing entries
which throw additional light on the recreations of the Friends,
e.g. ‘ Forfeits, 8s., paid to Rachel Lucas for speaking ungrammati-
cally Thee instead of Thou’ (809. 69). It appears from another
diary that, though Rachel Lucas was a strict grammarian, she was
something more. Now and then she indulged in a bout of
English poetry—the poetry, that 1s to say, of the safer sort, so safe
that it is with searching of heart that she accepts a copy of
Thomson’s Seasons in 1818 (809. 66). Even more austere are
the recreations of Ann Bowly. In the prospectus of the school
which she carried on before her marriage to William Lucas, it
is advertised, 1795, that ‘ Geography is to be introduced as an
amusement ’ (809. 81). Of all these house-abiding pleasures,
however, there was none so social or well pleasing in the sight of
Quakers as the drinking of tea, that blessed beverage which has
neither the arrogance of wine, nor the self-consciousness of coffee,
nor the simpering innocence of cocoa. Blessed be tea, whose
gracious influence can so wondrously enliven the intellect and
stimulate the flow of soul. Blessed be tea that can lure even a
Quaker from his taciturnity and silence, revive old memories and
tender sayings, knit families and friends together, and consecrate
with hallowed intercourse the evening hour (xxviii).
xxvu. This genteel accomplishment, so characteristic of the eighteenth
century, was not widely taken up by Friends because, after centuries of 1nter-
marriage and of opposition to the Fine Arts, they were becoming colour-blind.
In his Inqutrtes tnto the Human Faculty, 1883, p 47, Francis Galton, himself
descended from a family of Friends, states that colour-blindness 1s nearly twice
as prevalent amongst their Society as amongst the rest of the community, the
proportion being as 5 9 to 3 5 percent See also the Trans. Ophthalmological
Soc., 1881, p 198 The quality of the fine work produced by Samuel Lucas
the elder and Samuel Lucas the younger lies not so much 1n 1ts colour as 1n its
drawing and design. It should be added that Friends were careful to make
no display of ‘ the fine and masterly productions of the painter’s art.” ‘ There
are,’ says Clarkson, ‘a few amateurs amongst them who have a number and
variety of prints 1n their possession. But these appear chiefly in collections
bound together in books or preserved 1n portfolios, and not in frames as orna-
mental furniture for their rooms ’” (Portratture of the Christtan Profession and
Practices of the Soctety of Friends. Edn. 1847, p. 77).
xxvin. In Friends House Library there 1s a Satyrical Poem in manuscript
by one John Sutcliffe, 1717, which has these attractive sub-titles: The Quakers’
Tea Table Overthrown, The Tea-table Sptlt, and The China-ware Broken.
VOL. II. M
178 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
It was the judgment of Friends in some parts ‘ that we should
refrain from having fine tea-tables set with fine china, and that
Friends keep clear of the superfluous part in drinking tea, thinking
that some of the time and money that is spent thus might be
better used ’ (851. 512). But here no one, not even Shillitoe,
arose to disturb the ‘torpid, indoor, tea-tabular felicity’ of
Hitchin Friends. Were they happy in this? One hesitates to
say. Had anyone the right to behappy? Like asword suspended
above them hung the thought that pleasure itself might be a sin.
You may look upon their faces—for Samuel Lucas has painted
many (xxix)—and you may hesitate still. Wise and inflexible,
calm and uneager, sedate and grave, covered all over with what
Mary Howitt, herself a Friend, termed ‘ utmost solemnity and
shut-up-ness ’—these traits are everywhere apparent; but humour,
gaiety, happiness, do you find them there? (xxx). One must look
deeper. In another portrait in black and white by G. K. Chester-
ton one may observe ‘their dignity, their weariness, their sad,
external care for others; their incurable, internal care for
themselves—all due to their belief in the Inner Light, and existing
only by that dismal illumination.’ ‘ They are,’ he says, ‘ the last
of the Stoics.” But somewhere deep within, assuredly, they had
a solid satisfaction not far from happiness; that comes to those
only who ‘ die to the lusts and perishing vanities of this world,
and who lay aside all these things for the sake of Christ.” ‘ The
fear of God,’ said Barclay, in summing up the matter, ‘ is the best
recreation in the world ’ (645. 368).
XVII
PLAINNESS OF APPAREL
Let us now study for a moment the advices and restraints
on dress. This was the second of those twofold dangers which
xxix. He painted none for gain, and none for notoriety, and he was well
aware of the dislike prevalent in the Society for any such portraiture. The
British Friend of the period when Samuel Lucas was painting 1s full of warnings
against Friends having their portraits painted, or possessing portraits, and
against the insertion of these in biographies (see vols. for 1847, pp. 81, 128;
1848, p.78. See also 1862, p. 16, a review finding fault with a certain biography
for containing a portrait) ‘The present author 1s under a sense of contrition
for reproducing the portraits that illustrate this chapter. If he has caused any
distress of mind thereby he prays to be forgiven.
xxx. Lord Grey, when discussing this problem in his Falloden Papers,
quotes the saying of an American girl as typical of the modern point of view:
“ No doubt people who are good are happy, but they do not have a good time.’
THE QUAKERS 179
Fox, in his last days, had foreseen: ‘I had a concern upon my
spirit,’ he says, * of the danger of young people running into the
fashions of the world.’ It was a danger which Margaret Fox
as a woman could not see. According to a report of Timothy
Langley to Secretary Thurloe in 1658, ‘ she hath liberty to wear
satins and silver and gold lase and is a great gallant ’ (831. 364).
But that was before her marriage to George Fox (xxxi). What
in her wise heart she dreaded more than running into fashions
was running into narrowness and ‘legal ceremonies.” How
far were these ‘ silly, outside practices’ from gospel freedom.
‘To be all of one dress and one colour will not make them
Christians; it is the Spirit that gives life.’ And once again,
lifting up her voice as of a Mother in Israel, she said: ‘ It is more
fit for us to be covered with God’s eternal Spirit and clothed
with His eternal Light; this is the clothing that God puts upon
us and will bless’ (851. 518). But neither the Spirit she spoke
of, nor the ‘ advisements ’ of the Society, ‘to avoid pride and
immodesty in apparel,’ seemed to check the tendency towards
‘things merely superfluous.’ The complaints seem to grow
more frequent of men ‘ wearing their hats and clothes after a
beauish manner,’ and of women ‘ with their gaudy attire, gold
chains and high, towering dresses.” In a paper written by
William Edmondson, a famous Irish Friend who visited Hitchin
in 1691, and whose Journal was afterwards much thumbed by
Hitchin Friends, you can mark the insidious advances of Mammon
and Unrighteousness: ‘ ‘Then came another spirit to gain entrance,
and this began to look back into the world and was striving to be
great in the riches and possessions of this world; and there
appeared great, fair buildings in city and country, fine and
fashionable furniture, and apparel equivalent, with dainty and
voluptuous provision, with rich matches in marriage, with exces-
sive, customary, uncomely smoking of tobacco (xxxii), far short
of the example our Lord left us ’ (851. 503).
xxxi. IT’. Edmund Harvey reminds me that ‘ George Fox, whilst opposed
to the frivolities of fashion, did not object to colour in dress, and bought his
wife (out of money she had sent him, which he would not use for himself)
some red cloth for a mantle. Moreover, he wore his hair long, 1n marked con-
trast with the close-cropped Puritan fashion.’
xxxu. Although he hated the smell of tobacco, ‘and tobacco I did not
take,’ Fox did draw a whiff from a pipe offered to him on one occasion, lest 1t
should be thought that ‘he had not unity with the Creation ’ (829. 1. 44).
Moreover, in the course of his American journey, 1671-3, he held ‘ a pressious
meeting 1n a Tobacco house,’ finding 1t a convenient place 1n a season of ‘ very
180 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Not all the Ministers and visiting Friends upheld a testimony
as strong as this. It is charged against Thomas Story, who
visited the Hitchin Meeting so often, that he was ‘a little too
fine and modish,’ particularly as to his hat and long hair; and
so gave countenance to others to wear ‘curled and powdered
hair, flourishing wigs, long cravats, unnecessary folds in their
coats, fashionable sleeves and cuts of several kinds, cocks and
strings in their hats, with such-like things after the modes of
the world’ (851. 509). With Shillitoe, of course, there was no
‘ cowardly compliance,’ no ‘ balking of testimony.” He was, as
ever, on the side of the angels, and incidentally on the side of the
Apostle Paul, who adjured the fair but weaker sex ‘to adorn
themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety ;
not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but
with good works’ (1 Timothy 2. 9-10) (xxxili). If the ‘ very
ill example to our observing youth ’ was to be ended, said Shillitoe,
their elders must put aside their ‘ Babylonish garments’ and
dress in a ‘ plain home manner ’ (743. 1. 38).
Certainly no one would accuse him of extravagance in this
respect. Even when he travelled as Minister abroad, and suffered
rough usage almost daily at the hands of the ungodly, he con-
sidered one suit to be enough. In 1821 he was in Copenhagen,
and by the influence of the Prime Minister was promised an
interview with the King. ‘Count S——,’ he says, ‘ looking rather
earnestly at me, said, ““ You do not mean to appear before the
King in those clothes, do you? ”’; the breaking of my bottle of
chocolate, independent of my clothes being very much worn,
had given them a greasy appearance. I told him I had no others
cold weather.’ But 1t 1s clear that smoking was strongly discountenanced
amongst Friends. Benjamin Lay of Colchester, 1681-1759, an eccentric
Muanister, who visited Hitchin in 1715, 1s said on one occasion to have appeared
at Yearly Meeting with three long pipes stuck 1n his bosom. As the meeting
was ending he ‘ rose and dashed one pipe down amongst the ministers on the
men’s side, another amongst the women, and the third amongst the common
people; as much as to say they were all of one piece 1n their neglect of this
branch of their testimony ’ Not until the nineteenth century can you find any
Apology on behalf of smoking 1n the Society. See Samuel Bevan’s To all who
smoke ! a few words in defence of Tobacco; or a Plea for the Pipe, 1857. ‘The
abstinence from tobacco,’ comments Dr Norman Penney on this note, ‘ really
came 1n with the evangelical period. Prior to that, many Friends smoked,
including women Miunuisters.’
xxx11. Women Friends found the apostle rather a nuisance. He was always
being quoted at them. ‘ Paul may be of that opinion,’ remarked Margaret
Pike on one occasion, ‘ but thou knows Paul was not a Friend.’
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THOMAS SHILLITOE IN HIS RUSSIAN CLOTHES
From a sketch by Samuel Lucas
THE QUAKERS 181
with me, but I would endeavour to smarten myself, at which he
smiled, and so the subject closed. . . . That same evening I
set to work and did my best in cleaning and brushing my clothes
and hat, which was much in the same train as my clothes ’ (743.
1. 291). As a rule, however, Shillitoe left these ‘ smartenings up’
to his wife, whom he visited in the rare and brief intervals of his in-
cessant ministry. ‘Though somewhat phlegmatic, she was a good
manager and practical in all her ways. The story is often told in
Hitchin how Shillitoe, having brooded by himself for months
over the project of his longest European mission, at length laid
his concern suddenly and unexpectedly before Hitchin Monthly
Meeting. ‘Their approval being obtained, he then for the first
time informed his wife that he would be absent for a year and
possibly for two. She was silent for a considerable time and
then observed: ‘ And how many shirts wilt thou require? ’
XVITI
RESTRAINTS ON THE VANITY OF WOMEN
But men were in no danger of taking pride in their apparel,
or of leading others astray. If they were not then, most certainly
they are now, the worst apparelled of all the creatures God has
made. As George Fox and Robert Barclay saw, it was not the
men, but the daughters of men, who were most in danger. It
was they who were to be saved from the tyranny of an ever-
changing fashion. It was they who had to be forbidden ‘ the
use of ribands and lace, painting the face and plaiting the hair,
which are the fruits of the fallen, lustful, and corrupt nature.’
It was they, above all, who had the power with these allurements
to lead mere men astray. The very existence of the other sex,
as Bonaventura had remarked, is a temptation permitted by
God in His inscrutable Providence; and that experienced Saint
in his catalogue of temptations— the curious listening to news
and musical instruments, the sight of fair things and the con-
templation of delectable things with inordinateness of affection ’
—had not overlooked the ‘ curious gazing on women.’ ‘ Away
then,’ says Fox in 1669, ‘away with your skimming-dish hats
and your unnecessary buttons. . . . And away with your long
slit yokes . . . and short sleeves . ..and flying scarves on
your back ’ (851. 511). ‘ Away,’ say those who sit afterwards in
182 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
the seats of authority, away with your ‘ spangled or speckled
aprons,’ 1689 (xxxiv) ; away with your ‘ figured and gaudy stuffs ’;
away with your ‘ wide-sleeved mantles, cross-laces and long
trains,’ 1706; away with your ‘ knotted handkerchiefs, coloured in
orange and red,’ 1710; away with your ‘ quilted petticoats, your
red-heeled shoes, your scarlet or purple stockings and petticoats
made short to expose ’em’; and ‘all else that the judgment of
Truth is gone out against,’ 1720 (851. 509. 515).
In the diaries and letters of Mercy Ransom, 1728-1811, a
minister whose ‘ poor, worn-out tabernacle was dropped into
the grave ’ just before Shillitoe came to Hitchin, you can almost
see the struggle going on between the natural woman with her
love of pretty things and ‘ that of God in her’ which was con-
cerned only ‘to centre down into abasement and nothingness ’”
(842). She was as a girl a pattern little Quaker: ‘ I remember,’
she writes down under the year 1749, ‘ when we went to pay our
first visit to Cousin Jeremiah Owen’s wife, notwithstanding the
gaiety and grandeur which appear’d in her dress and Equipage,
with which our eyes could not but be somewhat taken up, a
certain passage of Scripture seemed to live in my mind in a
particular manner, to wit what David says, ‘‘ One hour in the
presence of God is better then a thousand anywhere else ’”’’
(714. 10). Yet the woman in her was not dead but sleeping.
Just as the sampler which she worked in childhood has more
choiceness and refinement about it than is commonly observed,
so even in ‘ the somber habits of humility ’ which her conscience
constrained her to wear in later years there is a richness and
quality of material, a ‘handsome simplicity’ as Jane Austen
would have said, which almost compensates for the lack of colour.
Moreover, like other young Quakeresses of the time, she possessed
the indescribable art of putting on the regulation bonnet in such
a way as to look positively becoming. Nor were its recesses
ever so deep as to hinder the eyes ‘ from being somewhat taken
xxxiv. Aprons were to be worn, but must be fashioned of cloth, not silk,
and of green or blue or other sober colours, not white. Most of the aprons
depicted 1n the original of the picture of Gracechurch Meeting prefixed to this
chapter are green. ‘The green apron, as a badge of Quakerism, appears 1n many
a satire of the eighteenth century :—
‘When she to silent meeting comes,
With apron green before her,
She simpers so lke muffle plums,
"T'would make a Jew adore her’ (860. 350).
THE QUAKERS 183
up ’ with the attractive world outside. Her Chippendale chairs,
on which the writer of this book has sat, her chests, the silver
apple-scoop she gave to Mercy Green, her other trinkets, have
all of them an unsanctified air of elegance about them. They
speak of her to this day, just as she often spoke of them (714. 16).
To a letter of religious encouragement which she wrote to her
niece, Susanna Crafton, in 1771, she adds a postscript, dwelling
with evident satisfaction on her ‘ gold buttons,’ which had just
come back from being repaired (xxxv). In the book of recipes
which she compiled, along with instruction how to make a
* Quaking pudding ’ and ‘ Aunt Ransom’s way for Hams,’ there
is, horribile dictu, a recipe for lip-salve (xxxvi) (714. 16).
But less and less, as her religious experience develops, are
the eyes permitted to wander from the safe seclusion of that
bonnet. She was slowly coming to agree with the advice which
Samuel Spavold was ever dinning into Friends’ ears at the Hitchin
Meeting: ‘We want to be more inward; the Lord’s people
are an inward people ’ (809.75). So far as clothes were concerned,
the cost of anything superfluous began to lie uneasily upon her
conscience. She had worked for years in the Hitchin slums
and she had learned how the poor lived. How true, how sadly
true was that adage of ‘ our worthy elder William Penn ’: ‘ The
xxxv. One may charitably assume that these gold buttons were not pur-
chased but inherited by her, and worn not 1n vanity but out of remembrance.
In 1742 Mary Ransom had inherited a ‘ pair of silver buttons ’ under the will
of Lydia Ward, and had not scrupled to appear in them at Meeting. In 1746
John Woolman received ‘ a pair of gold buttons ’ as a legacy and had no qualms
about accepting the bequest. A conflict of mind 1s occasionally apparent,
however. Benjamin Lucas, for example, who had overcome the doubts he
once held about the possession of gold and silver articles of virtu and ornaments
of dress experienced some uneasiness about the transmission of them to his
descendants. When he came to make his will in 1766 he compromised with
his conscience by bequeathing with each piece of silver a book of devotion that
might counteract any possible infection of worldliness ‘'To my sister Rebecca
my silver shoe-buckles and Hervey’s Medttations.” In December 1927 Miss
A. M. Lucas, Mayor R. B_ Lucas and I opened a drawer in the home of the
Lucas family at Wratten, Hitchin, and discovered many of its trinkets of the
eighteenth century. A delightful box of vanities - silver spoons from Cromwell’s
time, with the initials of the original owner engraved, silver buckles, watches
and cheese-tasters, snuff-boxes with the snuff still inside them, mourning rings,
gold-mounted scent bottles, lockets and chains, 1vory combs, primitive shaving-
brushes, fobs and seals. Some of the seals bore the device of a fox, or that
of Socrates. Others, as 1f to mitigate the luxurious effect of the gold setting,
were cut with the severe features of Penington and Fox.
xxxvi. T’.. Edmund Harvey very reasonably remarks: ‘ May not the lp-
salve have been an innocent ointment for chapped lips ?’”
184 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
very trimming of the vain world would clothe all the naked
one ’ (xxxvii). In the end, and after many a conflict, the natural
woman was subdued, and ‘ that of God ’in her prevailed. Before
she died she was enabled to say with John Crook, ‘ that ancient
servant of the Lord’ who in his unregenerate days had been a
seller of lace: ‘ When the mind thinks nothing, when the soul
coveteth nothing, and when the body acteth nothing contrary
to the will of God, this is perfect sanctification ’ (851. 475, 516).
When William Forster made an ‘ Excursion’ to Hitchin in
1778 he found no trace of this sanctification amongst the other
women Friends. He had occasion to mourn over their world-
liness: ‘Rudd Wheeler’s second daughter,’ he writes to his
sister Tabitha on the 18th of the 2nd month, ‘ showed by her
manner of walking, sitting and talking that she had seen the
Metropolis . . . she wears a dark bonnet and cloke which in
their plain meeting looked, if not gay, singular. . . . Betsy
Lister is not at all improved in dress or person, tho’ [she] attempts
to set it off by a ridiculous head-dress not at all genteel, and
particularly disagreeable in her, a high head sufficiently powdered,
a frightful cap with Lappets under her chin sets off her face to
Admiration yet not respect.’
In her lifetime Mercy Ransom also had deplored the weaken-
ing of Friends’ witness against pride of apparel. After her
death in 1811 the decline became more marked. ‘The Yearly
Meeting of 1845, 1n its Epistle, issued a last warning against
“those progressive deviations from simplicity of dress and that
gradual assimilation with the world, which as we believe render
it additionally difficult to resist its customs in this particular ’
(853. 176); and then in 1860, as has been noted, the query respect-
ing plainness of apparel was abandoned. In these degenerate
days, with no ‘garb or shibboleth’ to guide, it is no longer
possible to distinguish a Quaker from any other son of Adam.
In his Journal Shillitoe sums up the matter with a telling story.
There was a judge in America, he says, into whose court came a
Quaker to affirm and give evidence. ‘The man was dressed like
the other witnesses in fashionable clothes. ‘ Are you a Quaker?’
asked the judge in surprise. ‘ Yes,’ replied the witness. ‘ Do
xxxvii. Some Fruits of Solstude in Reflections and Maxims (1693), Pt. 1,
No. 67 (an some editions, 73). In 1776, Goldsmith (Vicar of Wakefield) wrote:
‘The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of
the vain.’
THE QUAKERS 185
you really belong to that Church or Society?’ urged the judge.
‘Yes,’ he repeated. ‘Then after a little pause the judge observed:
‘The time was, when the members of your Society were known
by their peculiar dress and appearance; but it is not so now.
You cannot be known by your dress. You are like a ship on
the sea or privateer sailing under false colours that it may not
be known.’ ‘I feel it best,’ adds Shillitoe, ‘ to give this circum-
stance a place in these memoirs in hopes it may prove as a watch-
word to such who may be tempted to gratify their natural inclina-
tion, by departing from that simplicity into which the Truth
first led its followers ’ (743. 2. 358).
XIX
MINISTERS AND MINISTRY
Having sketched the early history of the Hitchin Friends:
their sufferings, the formation of their Preparative and Monthly
Meetings, and the main branches of their religious testimony,
we may now give some brief account of the Ministers by whom
the faithfulness of that testimony and the fervour of those Meet-
ings were maintained. It has seemed strange to some detached
observers that what looks suspiciously like ‘a separate and
exclusive ministry ’ should have grown up in a Society which in
its beginning testified so loudly against ‘ those who exalt the
sacerdotal system which silences the voice of the prophets.’
Within the Society itself there have been those hike William
Howitt, 1792-1879, who have looked upon this order of Ministers
and Elders with its own Select Meetings and Queries as ‘ an
oligarchy of the most dangerous kind’ (853. 774). But there
were always safeguards against anything sacerdotal. Not one
Minister in a hundred had the learning or the influence, even
if he had the will, to lord it over the ordinary members. Most
of them conformed to the Scriptural injunction: ‘ If any man
desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all.’
Their lowliness of mind has been well emphasized by Robert
Barclay. ‘ God,’ he writes in his Apology, ‘ God hath laid aside
the wise and learned and the disputers of this world, and hath
chosen a few despicable and unlearned instruments to publish his
pure and naked truth, and to free it of those mists and fogs where-
with the clergy hath clouded it, that the people might admire
186 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
and maintain them ’ (851. 387). It 1s just possible that some of
the Hitchin Ministers have been ‘ admired ’; but none was ever
‘ maintained.” The only payment they looked for was ‘ the
penny of peace ’"—the reward of being able to say with George
Fox, ‘ Wee brought every one to their own teacher’ (860. 9).
In one solitary instance, in the middle of the last century, a
suspicion did arise, but the ‘ hireling,’ so called, without being
given the benefit of the doubt, was instantly disowned.
There were various other ways in which Ministers were kept
in subjection. The answers given to the Queries were vigilantly
scanned by the Quarterly Meeting of Munisters and Elders.
If Ministers dealt in ‘ ambiguous expressions,’ or were per-
functory and formal, they heard of it anon. Sometimes the
Morning Meeting of Ministers in London would take complaints
of their conduct or their teaching into review, and descend
upon them in a cloud of admonition. Shillitoe, who spoke from
painful experience, used to refer to these occasions as ‘low,
exercising times.” Once, as John Barclay came out of this
Meeting after a trying ordeal, Shillitoe took his arm in silent
mourning, and after a while broke out with these words: ‘ John,
there is nothing too bud for that Morning Meeting.’ Certainly
their eyes were everywhere. If any made use of ‘ unbecoming
tones, sounds, gestures and affectation, which are not agreeable
to Christian gravity’; if any ‘travelled without certificates,’
or ‘ failed to labour harmoniously for the advancement of Truth,’
or ‘ judged and contradicted one another in public meeting,’ or
“ overcharged themselves with business to the hindrance of their
service,’ or were ‘ overtaken with a fault,’ they could be sure
their sins would find them out (703. 89-104, 147, 150). Apart
from these inquisitions the best-regulated Minister might suffer
the indignity of being ‘ eldered.’ If he spoke not according to
the Spirit, or soared up into high notions of his own, the Elders
to a certainty would be upon him. There was no getting round
that printed Epistle of 1728, which required Ministers ‘ to keep
to the form of sound words or Scripture terms; and that none
pretend to be wise above what is there written, and in such
pretended wisdom go about to explain the things of God in the
words which man’s wisdom teaches’ (703. 89). And, apart
from the Elders, some of the private members took the liberty
to chastise the Ministers with the scorpions of their tongues.
The story survives in one Hitchin Quaker home of a Minister
THE QUAKERS 187
being censured in this caustic manner: ‘ Some think a deal of
thee; but to me thy preaching is both dull and tedious.’ In
the early days, 1737, when Hitchin Friends were sitting with the
Friends in Baldock Meeting, Thomas Burr, having impatiently
listened for a time to Thomas Coe of Colchester, called upon him
to produce his certificate, and, when this was done, Burr took
hold of it and tore it to shreds before his face, and then and after-
wards treated Coe and those who sent him ‘ with further contempt
and scorn, unbecoming the gravity of Religious men ’ (656).
‘Dry and tedious ’ a few undoubtedly were. One hears in
1772 of Samuel Spavold, after two hours of prophesying, being
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left to prophesy unto himself, unconscious apparently that all
the rest had fled. As some sort of check on him, a conference
was held on ‘the meaning and scope of the word ‘“ prophet ”’
as used in the New Testament.’ And one hears of Joseph Allen,
who, at a time when the old Meeting House was packed to suffoca-
tion for the wedding of Rachel Lucas and Richard Beck in 1822,
* stood nearly an hour in the ministry,’ and that, too, after Beving-
ton Gibbins had been ‘sweetly engaged at some length in
supplication ’ (809. 139). But of nearly all the Hitchin Ministers
it may be said that ‘ the excellency of their power was of God,
who is the Minister of all Ministers ’; their sufficiency was of
188 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Him who ‘ made them able Ministers of the New Testament,
not of the letter that killeth, but of the Spirit that giveth life.’
Here we can touch but the hem of their garments as they pass
in the pageant of memory; and of one or two of them
only.
One thinks first and foremost of William Turner, 1643-1704,
the foster-father of Quakerism in Hitchin. He is described in
his testimony as a ‘ hearty lover of the Friends of Truth whom
his heart and house were always ready to receive.’ It was at
his house that the first Meetings were held. It was there that
Thomas Story used to stay, and that Thomas Janney died. In
1704 ‘Turner himself travelled on ‘ to where beyond these voices
there is peace.’ There is a record of his last moments: ‘ He
charged his children to be none of them that strive to stay at
home, but strive who shall go to Meeting.’ And he bade them
not to mourn for him: ‘I find nothing but that it will be well
with me to all Eternity ’ (762. 1. 281).
XX
THomMaAS THOMPSON AND ISAAC SHARPLES
Of ‘Thomas Thompson the younger, 1673-1727, it is not easy
to speak. He is too tempestuous a man to hold his place in any
pageant. And he was one of those who strove never to be at
home. Born at Shipsea in Yorkshire of a famous father, he
came to Hitchin with ‘ an ample certificate ’ in 1707, and tarried
here until the latter end of his life (762. 3. 62-64). But, con-
stantly being taken up by the Spirit, he was driven here, there
and everywhere to all places of the earth. In the course of his
“ seasonable, serviceable, and comfortable’ ministry of twenty-two
years he is said to have travelled 60,000 miles. He cast the
bread of life on many waters and his money, too. One hears of
his running to the aid of those fellow Ministers who ‘ have made
strait steps to their feet, and whose goings are in the deeps ’;
in this he followed his father, who in 1675 had furnished George
Fox with {5 for his journey to the north. At long intervals,
as in 1705 and 1717, he rises, as it were from the dead, in Yearly
Meeting, and gives an account of his stewardship in Rhode
Island, Long Island, Pennsylvania, Barbados, and other far-off
lands. He tells them of ‘large and heavenly meetings’ in
THE QUAKERS 189
Pennsylvania, and of small but no less heavenly Meetings in the
Bermudas, where the few Friends that survive ‘ would be very
glad of visitors, and, to speak comparatively, of the crumbs
that fall from our table.’ And he gives ‘all the glory unto the
Lord alone, whose delivering, protecting Arm of Power we
evidently beheld with us in many Jeopardys and Dangers’
(652; 653). As one might easily imagine, the still life of a settled
Meeting was never to his liking; and unfortunately he was the last
person to dissemble or stifle into silence what he felt. ‘ The indig-
nation of the Lord,’ so he confesses, ‘ burns in my soul against
such as are still in Babylon.’ In a series of letters written in 1720
he is said to have made ‘divers unjust reflections’ upon his
brother-in-law, John Fallowfield, and on certain other Ministers
of Hertford Monthly Meeting. That was putting it mildly.
A perusal of the fourteen heads of the indictment against Thomp-
son shows more precisely the language that he used. Here
is a sample: ‘ a loose pack are ye; deceitful, under-hand workers,
taking part with the Dragon warring against the Lamb; ravening
wolves; co-workers with the Prince of Darkness and the Bottom-
less Pitt; Spirits as light as chaff and bitter as wormwood; your
Testimony no more than a Blast and Rattle of Wind.’
By these and other worse libels the members there declared
themselves to be ‘ greatly wronged,’ and called on ‘Thomas
Thompson ‘ to give such satisfaction as is justly due to a Christian
Society.’ He flatly refused to do anything of the kind. They
visited him and got something less than satisfaction: ‘ Men,’
he said, ‘may soon grow florid in discourse and preaching,
and yet be in a withering state and condition as to the Ground
and Foundation of Truth.’ As it was clear ‘he could not be
prevailed with in a more private Gospel Way,’ they then appeared
before Hitchin Meeting, but Thompson’s own people ‘ refused
to listen or have the letters read.’ ‘ Failing their being in a
better disposition,’ it was resolved to lay the matter before
Quarterly Meeting; but before they could proceed to extremities
Thomas Thompson ‘is reported to have withdrawn from the
Meeting and gone to live within the limits of another Quarterly
Meeting.’ So he departed out of their midst, but it is evident
that his indignation had burned down and that his better self
was not at ease: ‘ he desires all Friends to forgive him and pass
it by’ (650). ‘Twenty-five years later, worn out with travel and
contention, he set out from Saffron Walden on that journey
190 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
whence no traveller returns. ‘ My soul,’ he said, ‘ travels for
Zion,’ and like Turner he made a glorious end. Whatever else
he might be, this Thomas was no doubter. ‘ To them that may
enquire concerning my end,’ he exclaimed, ‘ let them know that
I die in the Faith that saves and triumphs over death and hell,
finding no cloud in my way, but perfect peace with God, the
presence of whose glory is with me.’ As the vision of the
Heavenly Jerusalem comes to his closing eyes, he breaks out
again into ecstasy: ‘ The sweetness of his love can never be told;
the rays of his beauty shine upon me. Iam filled with the power
of his love. Rejoice with me, rejoice ’ (653).
Mary Ransom, 1682-1747, of whom it falls next to speak,
though a contemporary of ‘Thomas Thompson, was in her nature
the very antithesis of him. There was nothing austere or
vexatious about her. By one who had suffered from Thomas
Thompson’s tongue it was remarked that she could get on with
anyone—‘ even with a Friend.’ ‘ Possessed,’ according to her
Testimony, ‘ of a sprightly genius and strong natural faculties,’
she had found it harder than some to deny herself ‘ those captivat-
ing Baits of Youthful Pleasure and Vanity, which had tco far
betrayed her into a conformity to the vain Customs and Fashions
of this evil World.’ But the step once taken was never regretted
or retraced. ‘There was no compromise, no looking back. Her
faith, if one may use the quaint image of her biographer, was
“no fig-leaf covering of a formal Profession.” She knew whom
she believed, and she was not ashamed to own her Lord. It
was not required of her to travel in his service to the uttermost
parts of the earth. She fed his lambs in the green pastures by
her home. ‘ She has often refreshed the Lord’s Servants in
their Travels,’ continues her Testimony, ‘ being always desirous
to entertain strangers and help them.’ Blending in perfect
womanhood the piety of Mary, the practical wisdom of Martha,
and the blessed cheerfulness that was her own, she went on helping
others throughout her long ministry of forty years, and then
* quietly departed this life in peace with the Lord and in Unity
with his people ’ (677).
Of Isaac Sharples, 1702-1784, who was born some five
years before Thomas Thompson removed to Hitchin, and
whose life covered most of the eighteenth century, there is much
that could be written, for he printed a ‘ short narrative ’ of him-
self just before he died, and after his death thirty members
THE QUAKERS 191
signed a Testimony which is by far the longest in the records
of the Hitchin Meeting (693). Yet he was a modest, unassuming
man: ‘I was not found,’ he says, ‘among the wise and prudent
of this world. But the Lord took me from the stones of the
street, where in his wisdom and goodness he has often raised
up children unto Abraham.’ In the Testimony also that same
lovable trait is emphasized: ‘ an innocent cheerfulness, tempered
with gravity, adorned his conversation, and his conduct was a
pattern of meekness, moderation and love, which gained him
general esteem.’ There were those in Hitchin Town who loathed
the Quakers and who loved to bid against them at the sale of
their goods and chattels seized in distraint for tithes. But no
one ever dreamed of preventing Sharples from buying back
his goods (704). In him they rejoiced to find a Quaker who had
no air of general condemnation about him and no exclusiveness.
He loved those outside the Society as he loved those within.
* He travelled much in the work of the Ministry,’ says the Testi-
mony, ‘ in this nation, in Scotland and Ireland, also in the Island
of Jersey, and was once in Trruth’s service in Holland; in the
exercise of which he was engaged not only amongst those of our
religious profession, but frequently amongst others, having many
opportunities in public places and barns to unfold the Mysteries
of the Kingdom and direct all to the gift of God in themselves.
In supplication he was inward and weighty, an awful solemnity
covering his spirit, whereby he was frequently favoured with
near access to the throne of Grace.’ James Jenkins records
that he was called ‘ the lazy preacher,’ because ‘ for a considerable
time after standing up his progress was uncommonly slow ’ (678).
But, once started, it was not easy to stop him. At the burial
of Edmund Peckover, a noted Minister, he preached for two and
a half hours ‘ with great satisfaction to the meeting.’ Samuel
Scott, on the other hand, in his Journal refers to him as ‘a Prince
in Israel, not seeking to lord it over God’s heritage, but an
ensample to the flock ; whose ministry was singularly distinguished
with brightness, his matter being evangelical and his expressions
correct, nervous and animated’ (708. 52, 102). There is but
one Gospel,’ he himself declared, ‘however some may have
degenerated into Form and called that the Gospel.’ And,
‘although many of our Society have fallen,’ it comforted him
to think that ‘ the Truth is kept to in as much simplicity amongst
us as among any people.’
192 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
In the service of that truth and simplicity he laboured to the
very last. When it was no longer possible to travel in the
Ministry it was still possible to write. In many a Quaker home
to this day one comes upon letters written with his failing hand,
letters of counsel, of rebuke, of admonition, of heavenly comfort.
Writing in 1779 to his sister, Ann Young of Bristol (‘ my sister
both in the outward and the inner light ’), he laments the ‘ many
grievous, scandalous breaches and revoltings * that have occurred
even in their small Household of Faith, and the defection of
those who, ‘ having loved this present world,’ have forsaken
the ways of God. ‘ Many of our youth,’ he continues, ‘ are got
into the air and are become enemies to the Cross of Christ, and
the Elders are sunk into the Earth, and in too great a degree have
lost their savor, so that a dangerous state of lukewarmness now
prevails amongst us.’ Yet ‘there is still a remnant towards
whom the visitation of heaven is extended for their help and
preservation.’ For such as these his heart is exercised, ‘ that
they may be steadfastly abiding in God’s holy fear ’ (687). Much
has been our travail,’ he says in a letter to this Quarterly Meeting,
written conjointly with Edmund Gurney, Richard Chester,
John Kendall and Abraham Gray in 1777, ‘ much has been our
travail on your behalf, that this might be a day of Solemn Alarm
to you, to the shaking your minds from the inordinate care and
concerns of this life’ (684). One can tell from these letters
how this servant of the Most High longed to be engaged in the
Ministry again; how he envies such as Joseph Ransom, of whom
he notes in 1770, ‘ he has to our surprise appeared again in the
Ministry after lying by for many years.’ As for himself, his
travelling days were done. Sending a hamper of ‘ Aples’ to
Adey Bellamy in 1780, he speaks, though without complaining,
of ‘rheumatism in the head; my wife has a severe cod (sic),
and the grandchildren have the hooping cough’ (690). The
writing of the last letters is almost illegible. ‘ The infirmities
of old age increce apace,’ he tells his sister, ‘I am almost like
a ship drawing near to my Eternal Port, but I hope to finish
my course in peace’ (687). With him also the end was peace.
‘It is pleasant,’ he said, ‘ to think that I draw so near to the end
of my race and can now set up my Ebenezer and say “ hitherto
the Lord has been my Shield and exceeding great Reward.” ’
Then, ‘ turning himself in his bed, he seemed to fall into a sleep,
soon after which he quietly departed without a sigh or groan
THE QUAKERS 193
on the 18th of the 5th month, 1784, about the 82nd year of his
age, a minister about 60 years ’ (693).
XXII
SARAH CRAWLEY AND SAMUEL SPAVOLD
Yet another minister who died in her 82nd year and had been
a minister ‘about 60 years’ was Sarah Crawley, 1717-1799.
She was the daughter ‘ of a fine old woman,’ as William Forster
describes her on his visit to Hitchin in 1778. ‘She is very
far in the decline of life, upwards of ninety. I found her reclining
on a couch, and appeared in a very languid state, yet upon my
asking after some of the ancient Friends she soon revived and
told me... that William Penn was at her marriage. She
also attended the Meeting he held with his family when in the
Fleet, said she never saw his equal as a Christian and a Gent:
that he appeared of a Rank much superior to other men and
much exalted by Affliction. Sam Waldenfield, Thomas Ellwood
and all eminent in her time she knew well, and says there were
so many in the Ministry in the City that the long gallery in the
Gracechurch Meeting would seldom hold them.’
Daughter of this ardent member of the Hitchin Meeting,
and granddaughter of John Field, who had compiled the 3rd,
4th and sth parts of that Quaker Calendar of Saints known as
Piety Promoted, Sarah was brought up in the Household of
Faith and never left it, save to bring other souls inside. For
some years she kept a confectioner’s shop at Hitchin to support
her mother; but when that filial duty was ended she gave herself
up to the call of the Ministry. ‘She was a Minister, I believe,
generally esteemed amongst us,’ writes James Jenkins, who knew
her well, ‘ but her manner of delivery was extremely unpleasant.
Her voice was harsh and grating, and her cadence the music
of dissonance ’ (678). Yet none of those to whom she ministered
complained. She travelled acceptably and incessantly. It is
hard to find a year in which Sarah Crawley does not rise up in
Monthly Meeting, ‘ before the women Friends withdrew,’ and
make known her concern to visit certain ‘ families of Friends ’
or Meetings in distant parts. In 1745 she returns from Ireland,
‘having had a good satisfaction with peace of mind in her
journey ” (xxxvi1i). In 1756 she gives the Meeting an account
xxxvui. Mary Gibson, another Hitchin Minister, returned the same year
from the Western parts of the nation, ‘ with sheaves of peace in her bosom.’
VOL, II. N
194 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
of her labours in Hampshire, Sussex and Kent; ‘ though she
found things low in many places, the Lord by His preserving
arm had preserved and helped her to her comfort and satisfaction.’
At the age of 78, ‘under apprehension of duty,’ she cheerfully
sets out for Scotland and Wales, and signs the epistles of her
Missionary journey, ‘ your decrepit and affectionate old friend ’
(679). At the latter end of her long life she found herself power-
fully moved to work in the slums of London. ‘ She died in
apartments,’ says Jenkins, ‘ at that despicable part of the ‘Town
called Cow Cross, West Smithfield, after living many years in
the decent and salubrious town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
For a migration so unaccountable she pleaded the feelings of
duty, and that surely was sufficient reason’ (678). ‘Towards
the last she writes tender, wistful letters as if from exile to the
Friends at home; they are read in Hitchin Meeting, ‘ much to
our satisfaction.’ She subscribes herself ‘ your ancient friend ’*
(691. 74~7). She speaks of passing through the furnace of
affliction; yet is undismayed. She can no longer ‘crawl to
Meeting,’ but, as she remarked to those who stood about her
bed, ‘I have this morning been with the General Assembly and
Church of the first born which are written in heaven.’ Her
body was laid to earth, not in the burial-ground at Hitchin
amongst her own people but in Bunhill Fields. Her soul travels
on (762. 3. 288-290).
We must pass over the testimony of Rudd Wheeler, 1728-1807,
who was always lamenting ‘ our want of that zeal and Loveliness
of Spirit which so eminently characterized our early Friends ’;
and that of Fidelity Wheeler, his wife, 1728-1767, who, ‘ having
whilst young indulged her natural inclination in Gaiety of Dress,
was graciously visited with close and clear conviction, and was
made willing to enter into covenant with the Bridegroom of her
Soul’; and that of Joshua Wheeler, their son, 1755-1803, a
Minister ‘so cautious not to move without the unity of his
brethren, that he would stand open to the feelings of the least
babe who was alive in the Truth ’ (696; 697; 755; 762).
A very different sort of man was Samuel Spavold, 1708-1795.
To him the word ‘ caution’ was unknown. Certainly he knew
it not in his ‘flaming and canicular days.’ His Testimony
admits that ‘ he committed most of the follies incident to youth ’
(762. 3. 194-6). But ‘ through the merciful visitation of divine
Grace he became so effectually reached as to be stopped in his
THE QUAKERS 195
career of vanity about the age of nineteen, and a short time after
received a gift in the Ministry.’ Forty years he travelled as
Ship’s Carpenter and Joiner and itinerant Minister in the wilder-
nesses of Bawtry and Deptford and Chatham, and then at last
in 1750 he entered into the promised land of Hitchin. Here
he came to settle, doing a delicate piece of carpentry and cabinet-
work now and again for Friends (xxxix), but for the most part
SAMUEL SPAVOLD
engaged in the work of the Ministry. In this also he displayed
a lack of caution. At times he was ‘ baptized into close and
deep exercises which much excited the sympathy of the Friends,
to whom he approved himself an exemplary pattern of condescen-
xxxix. In the lovely home of the late LawsonThompson of Elmside, Hitchin,
there 1s a bookcase made by Spavold, an excellent specimen of his craftsmanship.
For fifteen years and more I have been privileged to open its perfectly fitting
196 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
sion; and once on a particular occasion signified that he had
rather lay down his natural life than lose the Unity of his Brethren ’
(678). But, however good his intentions might be, he was
constantly distressing the Brethren by breaking out into Visions
and Prophecies and Signs (670). He could not help it. The
Spirit bloweth where it listeth, and besides he was obedient
to the apostolical direction: ‘ If any man speak, let him speak as
the oracles of God’ (1 Peter 4. 11). In manner of speech,
however, he was far from oracular. There was no thunder or
lightning, no voice as from Sinai. ‘The inspiration would trickle
on for hours. On the 3rd of the tenth month, 1749, at Salter-
forth, ‘ after he had preached what may be called doctrine for the
space of three hours and one half,’ he began to prophesy and,
from the notes that were taken down in writing, 1t seems as if
the prophecy also must have lasted three hours and one half (667).
In 1751 he had a concern for Ireland, but ‘ the Friends of the
Morning Meeting in London,’ who had the conduct of Ministers
under their care, having heard things about Spavold, ‘ thought
it prudent for him to wait longer’; the certificate which the
Hitchin Meeting had already granted was therefore cancelled (xl)
(679). ‘The next year, however, he obtained liberty to go, and
there ‘ expressed himself 1n a prophetic manner, observing how
the Lord had shaken the Rod several times in this and other
nations, and yet 1t seemed to have but little effect.’ He feared
nothing but heavy judgments would do. ‘ But a stripping day
was at hand and that was the generation which should see it.’
On his fourth visit to Ireland he was accompanied by James
Jenkins, whom we have already quoted (688). ‘ Spavold has
great sweetness of disposition,’ allows Jenkins, ‘ but his judgment
was often superseded by the power of his imaginations ’ (xl1) (678).
doors and take out one by one the precious volumes within. ‘ A disjointed
medley,’ as Dryden would say, ‘ of 1ll-assorting things,’ wherein what remains
of the great collection of Quakertana made by John Thompson stands cheek
by jowl with such vanities as Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes, The Diversions of a
oo and The Life of Turner. But what a paradise for an unconverted
= xl. Here you have an excellent illustration of the sagacity of the Morning
Meeting operating as a check upon the impulsiveness of Particular Meetings,
who, 1f one may dare to say so, were too much inclined to give certificates for
service elsewhere to those who were not liked at home.
xli Writing of him again upon his death forty years later, Jenkins uses
almost the same words: ‘ He was a Friend whom I long knew and loved with
aspecies of filial affection, although an unbeliever in his prophetical denuncia-
tions ’ (678. 362).
THE QUAKERS 197
In 1749, when the murrain was raging amongst the horned
cattle, Spavold would have it that they were afflicted for the sins
of the nation. ‘Lo! how they look upon their masters, while
the tears come trickling from their eyes. Astheyare afflicted, so
shall the inhabitants of poor England be. A great and terrible
day coming over England, [greater] than any you have seen, is
nigh at hand. I believe I myself shall see it’ (678. 101). In
that the prophet was mistaken, though he did live to see the
Revolution in France. It was another prophecy of his that he
should lay down his bones in Ireland (678. 102). Yet his grave
is in Hitchin soil. Some other predictions there are which he
put into writing against that day when as a prophet he should
have honour in his own country. Fora time they were circulated
“all over our Society in England, Ireland and Wales.’ Now
they circulate no more. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, they lie
buried in the Friends House library, waiting for their glorious
resurrection. If he chooses, a student may get leave to disinter
them as the present writer did, but let him rather ask the sexton-
librarian to descend into the vaults for a letter which Spavold
wrote to Samuel Day on the 2gth of the first month, 1764. It
is a letter professedly from one horse-dealer to another, for Day
had a mare which Spavold wanted for his ministerial journeys.
Incidentally it shows one Friend trading with another as they
Were enjoined to do; and each so careful to study the other’s
advantage that no bargain could be struck: ‘ The next thing is
the worth of her. Thou says 7 guineas, but I may have her
for 5. It is very cind of thee, but I think it would be very rong
of me if I should entertain such a thought as to desire her for
less than her Reall vally. . . . Also, my cind friend, as she is a
favourite of thine, I would advise thee to keep her, and not part
with her neither to me nor to any body els. . . . I understand
by thy letter that thou hath pade a visit to Kezia Lawrence.
I hope the good hand is in it, and you have my sincere Desires
for your prevention (xlii), Whilst I am a scribbling, I was a
thinking, if thee should have Kezia, maybe thou may liek to
keep a chase, and then thy mare may be of good servis to thee’
(680).
The time came when neither on foot nor on horse could this
xlu. Dr. Norman Penney would have me read ‘ preservation,’ but that
seems rather unkind to poor Kezia. ‘ Prevention ’1s here used, I think, 1n its
scriptural sense.
198 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Minister go upon his travels. ‘On truth’s account,’ he had
journeyed once to America, 1757, where he met John Woolman,
who refers to him as ‘ my beloved friend,’ once to Scotland and
four times to Ireland and Wales. ‘ Tallin person, of a thin habit,
and latterly of a genteel appearance,’ the figure of this fine,
prophetic soul was familiar in Meetings far and wide. And
then he came no more. ‘ I am ready,’ he said, ‘ to go and preach
to them on my crutches.’ But that could not be, nor could he
endure to travel in state. Though he was married four times,
he had never been able ‘ to keep a chase’ for his wives’ sake or
his own (xliii). So he abode perforce at Hitchin and prophesied
to his fourth wife. Sometimes he struggled to Meeting and
stood in the Ministry. But ‘in these later years,’ says Jenkins,
‘he was much troubled with cough and asthma that caused
great expectoration, interrupted utterance, and rendered frequent
pauses needful. His tuneful cadence, when used amidst these
hindrances, sometimes excited levity among the younger part
of the audience’ (678). At last he could not even travel to
Meeting. But occasionally some Minister would travel to see
him. ‘Qn the ist of the sixth month, 1790,’ says Samuel Smith
in his Fournal, ‘I went to Hitchin, where I had the company
of that worthy servant of the Most High, Samuel Spavold, who
was very affectionate and kind as well as fatherly to me. The
good old man, now in the 82nd year of his age, appeared lively
and green, and full of good fruits.’ Five years later a larger
company of Hitchin Friends stood around the old man’s bed.
‘The Truth,’ he assured them, as he looked back over his
Ministry of sixty-five years, ‘the Truth is a precious thing:
it is worth seeking for.’ And then, taking each of them by the
hand in turn, he said, ‘ Farewell, I love you, I love you
all ’ (762. 3. 196).
XXIT
Mercy RANSOM
To the strict behaviour and plain apparel of Mercy Ransom,
1728-1811, some reference has been made, but not to her
Ministry. From her youth up Mercy Bell, as she was then,
xliuu. According to Jenkins it was his fourth wife who ‘ made a gentleman
of him,’ but not then, and certainly not before, was there any ‘ dignified reserve,
not one single inch of Church-Buckram ’ (678).
PUG py, fat
WOSNVE ADURIN
THE QUAKERS 199
had been carefully prepared in the way of the Lord. Her
commonplace books and diaries (842. 10-16) are full of her
spiritual experiences, Scripture texts and the religious outpourings
of Ministering Friends (xliv). She notes down for her remem-
brance what Mary Peisley said at Meeting in 1749: ‘ Bad books
are as effectual poison to the mind as arsenick to the Body.’
She takes to herself the advice that Susanna Morris gave to her
brothers in 1753, ‘ to take heed and beware of Deism.’ She is
diligent in recording the sayings of Penn and Naylor and Story.
She goes to Joseph Besse’s burial and ‘to my Satisfaction,
Edification and Comfort’ hears Samuel Fothergill preach, ‘ not
from a Scripture text yet from an undoubted Truth’: ‘ It is a
solemn thing to live and an awful thing to die.’ In the earthquake
of the 8th of the twelfth month, 1749-50, she hears ‘ the warning
that infinite Wisdom has seen meet to send us,’ and thinks it
should ‘ convince every mortal, not only that there is an Almighty
Being but that he can shake us poor worms into Atoms in a
moment ’ (842. 10-16).
Yet this poor worm was not easily shaken. She was a woman
without fear. ‘There was one member of Hitchin Meeting who
“was grown to such a pitch of wickedness’ that the two Elders
appointed to speak to him ‘concerning his ungodly practices ’
did not ‘ think it proper.’ In plain words they feared the con-
sequences. When this came to the knowledge of Mercy Ransom
she rushed in where Elders feared to tread; and not only spoke
to the reprobate, but brought him back, the veriest lamb, into
the fold. From her youth up she had possessed the remarkable
power of casting out the evil spirits in men. In 1753, thirty
years before she was recorded a Minister, she was compelled
by her conscience to go and preach to ‘ an abundance of loitering
people ’ in Rosemary Lane and Red Lion Street, London; for
her heart, as she expressed it, ‘was in pain on account of the
enormous flood of impiety and immorality wherewith the nation
was apparently overrun.’ Before a crowd of curious, scoffing
people this unmarried girl of twenty-five ‘stood up in great
weakness. But the power of an endless life gradually rose and
made her instrumental to shower down the refreshing rain of the
xliv. The names of more than forty Ministers are to be found, including
that of Joseph Rule, the Quaker in White, c. 1690-1770, over whose open grave
Isaac Sharples of Hitchin pronounced these fitting words, ‘ Behold an Israelite
indeed, 1n whom 1s no guile.’
200 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Gospel in a plentiful manner, so that many hearts were pierced.’
‘Some of them smote their breasts and cried out, “‘ we have
never had such a visit as this. This is not such preaching as
theirs that came with Hell and damnation in their mouths. She
comes from God to offer his grace and mercy to us.”’ Another
day, when she was exhorting the people in the Park, ‘ the soldiers
desired her to walk on. One of the people of a genteel sort said
to the soldiers, “‘ Your orders will extend to hinder this gentle-
woman from preaching what is good in the Park, but not to take
notice of many wicked things that are done there.’”” Another
said to Mercy, “‘ If you do go on, they can’t hurt you. God
Almighty will protect you in this good work.”’ On yet another
occasion ‘a person in liquor endeavoured to interrupt her by
firing a gun close by, which startled and disturbed many. She
stood in silence for a time amongst the drunken, dissolute company,
many of whom bore the marks of prostitution and infamy, till
the Spirit of Truth arose over them, and then, stepping upon a
bench, she declared the great day of the Lord to them with uncom-
mon fervency and awfulness ’ (671).
In 1765 she was married to Joseph Ransom of this parish,
and from that time forward made her home in Hitchin. But
her diaries show her to have travelled extensively in the Ministry
throughout Great Britain and Ireland. With her ‘ ancient
friend Sarah Crawley,’ with Deborah Darby and Rebecca Young,
with Job Scott, with Ann Christy and with Phoebe Lucas, she
goes like a ministering angel from place to place, from house to
house, bringing always more light, more truth, more love. Her
energy is amazing. During the five weeks she laboured at
Bristol in 1792 she held no fewer than 190 sittings and visited
691 persons. In 1795, when she was visiting the Quarterly
Meeting of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, she rode some 783
miles (842. 14). She will hear of some moribund Meeting, or
some poor soul in distress, in a remote corner of Scotland or
Wales, and she will be gone the moment her certificate is signed.
Months will pass and nothing will be known. Her husband
will be in constant anxiety. And then one day she will appear,
fresh and radiant as ever, as when she returned from Ratcliff
Monthly Meeting in 1799, saying, ‘I have been favoured with
divine help to support me in this concern even to my humbling
admiration, and have returned with the reward of Peace’
(679).
“aye
‘l
ir
THE QUAKERS 201
Her active Ministry was brought to an end in 1802 by a fall,
from which she never recovered. The last nine years were
passed in acute suffering and seclusion. ‘ Nothing will do but
patience,’ she declared, and with the same courage that she had
always shown she began to order her life afresh. One can watch
her as she sits, ‘ sweetly musing in my chamber ’ (xlv), for she
kept a diary which was published after her death, and which has
ministered no little consolation to other Suffering Souls (714).
After the storm and stress of so many years of travel it is good
to see the heavenly calm that settled upon her in this harbourage
of Hitchin. It is as though she had been always a Quietist at
heart. And now that ‘ deep, inward stillness,’ so long desired,
was to be undisturbed. Now could she prove that hard saying
ascribed to John Swinton, which she had pondered over and put
into her commonplace book as a girl: ‘In stillness there is
fullness; in fullness there is nothingness; in nothingness there
are all things ’ (851. 336). ‘To her ‘ the solemn silence is always
exceedingly precious, superior to hearing or speaking the most
exalted words ’ (714. 5). One must take care to protect it from
‘the malady of thought,’ the mere cleverness of man. ‘ There
is too much reason to apprehend that our Society members do
not see all Satan’s stratagems, one of which I believe is drawing
them to read and perhaps converse on philosophical subjects,
aiming to know more than the human understanding can reach.’
‘Oh! the loss many of us sustain,’ she continues, ‘ for want of
more inward abstraction: not only from improper desires but
even a silence from all thoughts. 'This blessed silence, not even
the enemy of our soul’s peace can enter ’ (714. 81).
Truly she had the Quietist’s reward. She speaks again and
again of ‘the inshinings of divine light,’ which come like a
benediction into her darkened room (714. 13). At times the
glory of it transfigures her whole being, and the pain and isolation
are forgotten; ‘ 1806. 12th of 6th month. Yesterday ill all day—
poor night—this morning low, under conflict of body and mind,
when suddenly, ere I was aware, my soul made me as the chariots
of Aminadib, being favoured with the fresh income of divine
love and life; which, if not at times vouchsafed, I think I should
lose all hope of ever seeing the beauty of the Lord again in the
xlv. The present writer can do this more easily than some, for he passed
three years in the same chamber (an upstairs room in No. 90, Bancroft), musing
not quite so sweetly over the mysteries of the law.
202 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
land of the living.’ Alas! the vision fails. The mists of the
world’s illusions obscure the beauty of the Lord. ‘ Open the
gates,’ she beseeches, ‘ that the righteous nation may enter in.
Oh! joyful to be admitted!’ (714. 17). But no, nothing but
patience would do. It was to be five years more before her light
affliction worked for her a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. Then it was, on the 25th of 5th month, 1811, that she
awoke to a new world and was satisfied with the likeness of her
Lord. The vision was true. The dream so often dreamed had
come to pass; ‘ My spiritual eye opened to see the beautiful state
of the true Jerusalem, the city of the Saints’ solemnity ’ (762. 4. 29).
XXITI
WoOMEN’s MEETINGS
It will be convenient to give a brief account here of the Women’s
Meeting, which Mercy Ransom in her lifetime had done so
much to uphold. Over the setting up of this there had been much
contention. Both at Hitchin and Hertford the members had
inclined to the Wilkinson and Story view. ‘They said that women
ought not to go gadding about the country neglecting their
household duties. Rather they should ‘ stay by their firesides
and wash their dishes.” Already they possessed more power
than ability to make use of it; and George Fox, in urging these
* faithfull women’s meetings,’ was merely turning their heads.
In time the controversy developed into actual schism; and many
outrageous things were spurted out in the heat of it against
Fox himself. From a paper in Friends House Library, dated
1678 and endorsed: ‘ George Fox’s answers to the Durty Spirits
at Hertford ’ (646), it seems that certain members, jealous of his
personal ascendency in the Society, conspired to blacken his
character and bring him down to the dust. ‘A lying, durty
paper,’ as Fox termed it, ‘was spreade up and downe’ the
country, containing the signed allegations of the local Friends.
According to Henry Sweeting and his wife, ‘ George Fox did
say of the Separate Meeting of John Story that ‘‘ only whores and
rogues, drunkards and swearers’’’ resorted there; and they
accused him further of mocking at a marriage performed by
John Story as a mere orgy of eating, drinking and making merry.
‘These words,’ adds Sweeting, ‘ were spoken at my house in
THE QUAKERS 203
Hertford, and if George Fox will come to tryall I shall prove the
substance of what is written.” Mary Beal and Thomas Moss of
the Baldock and Hitchin Meeting in their Testimony went
further still. According to them, George Fox declared in their
hearing one day at Baldock ‘ that John Story’s men and women
“** went together like whores and rogues.”’’ ‘ These,’ retorts Fox,
‘are lies and perversions of my words.’ Another ‘ wilful and
high spirit,’ Edward Perken, sheltered himself behind a general
statement: ‘ George Fox did speak a rabble of lies of people
behind their backs, and be it upon his own head.’ Upon him
also Fox turns as a ‘ bearer of false witness—-Blessed be the Lord
who will avenge himself of such and clear the innocent.’ No
sooner was Perken silenced than another uprose, testifying that
George Fox had said, ‘ I set up these Women’s Meetings, and if
I should throw them down again they would call me a folle and
an asse.’ ‘ Denied,’ thunders out Fox in his reply; ‘ I said they
were set up by the power of God.’ Now and again, 1n the pauses
of this storm of words, one catches the still, small voice of Isaac
Penington, the peace-maker, lamenting, expostulating, entreating:
“Oh! the sorrow and deep travail of this day because of the rents
which the subtile enemy hath made. Was there ever such an
occasion of blaspheming? Was there ever such stumbling-blocks
laid before the weak and before the tender-hearted? At whose
door will the Lord lay it?’ Fox could have told him that. Behind
and beneath all, directing everything, himself discreetly hidden,
hovered the implacable spirit of John Story. ‘ The Lord deliver
this people,’ breaks out Fox at last, ‘from this devouring and
destroying spirit.’ Continuing his letters of mediation, Penington
exhorts the Hertford and Hitchin Friends ‘to be guided and
enabled by him [i.e. G. Fox] either in an holy severity or tender-
meekness as the Lord shall go before and go along with you’
(646). But not for twenty years were these schismatics inclined
to sue for peace, not till Penington’s ‘ guide and enabler’ lay
silent and unable in the grave. From a report to Yearly Meeting
in 1684 it is clear that at that date only ‘ a remnant of the members
was preserved.’ But wiser counsels prevailed, and by 1700
Friends could say that ‘ the separation at Hertford, Ware and
Hitchin was much laid aside ’ (851. 474).
It seems as though peace was brought about only by the
abandonment of the proposal; for not until 1738 does the Men’s
Meeting ‘ agree that our Women Friends may have the privilege
204 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
of meeting by themselves as is the usual custom among the
Churches of Christ’ (679). Nevertheless, there are sufficient
records surviving to illustrate the unassuming work they sought
and were allowed to do. ‘This consisted for the most part ‘ in
relieving the necessities of such as are sick or weak or in want,’
as Fox had first ordained. One observes them—more clearly
perhaps in the later periods—going about Hitchin distributing
coals and blankets and other comforts; combating disease and
teaching the rudiments to orphan children. In Meeting and
out of Meeting one sees them busily engaged finding good places
for the girls and boys. ‘Do Friends want servants or servants
want places? ’ runs one of the Queries (No. 9) they set themselves
to answer. And they not only find the places, but watch over
those in service and offer to compose the differences between
mistresses and maids. ‘There are tracts, of course, for every
occasion. Each of the maids is given a copy of Instruction and
Advice to Girls intended to assist them in the performance of their
several duties as Servants. ‘The boys are given Anthony Purver’s
Counsel to Friends’ Children, or one of Mary Sewell’s popular
effusions, such as Mother’s Last Words; a Ballad for Boys, which
ran to twenty-four editions. The grown-ups receive The Swearer
alone with God, or To Men in the Intervals from Work; or, as on
one occasion in 1845, that odd pamphlet entitled Newspapers,
Mountebanks, Bells, Clocks or Watches, rejected by the Grace of
God, and disowned by the Faith of Jesus. In the good work of
book-distribution they had been much inspired by a Yearly
Meeting advice of 1764, which, though rather deprecated in the
Men’s Meeting, approved itself to the women and was recorded
in full on their minutes: ‘ This Meeting, being sorrowfully
affected under a consideration of the hurtful Tendancy of Reading
Plays, Romances, Novels, and other pernicious books, do earnestly
recommend to every member of the Society to discourage and
suppress the same, and particularly to acquaint all booksellers
under our name with the painful anxiety occasioned by the reports
of some instances of selling or lending such books. And we
further request that Friends everywhere be very careful of all
books in which their children read, seeing there are many
under the specious titles of Religion and Morality containing
sentiments repugnant to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus’
(703. 11).
In addition to this good work they sifted the clearness of those
THE QUAKERS 205
of their own sex who were ‘ toward marriage,’ paid domiciliary
visits to such as had given ‘ occasions of dissatisfaction,’ and
sent their own ‘ grave and solid ’ Ministers to comfort the people
in the neighbouring Preparative Meetings. ‘They in their own
turn were comforted by Ministers from near and far (692). In
1773 “our worthy friends Sarah and Deborah Morris from
Pennsylvania favoured us with their company’ (854. 562). In
1789 came Catherine Phillips, whom Jenkins describes as ‘ the
great Autocratix’ (853. 197). In 1802 came Charity Cook of
South Carolina and Mary Swett of New Jersey; practical women
both, who in the intervals of their ministry would teach these
English housewives ‘how to make yeast as they do in
America ’” (xlv1) (816. 4. 30). The year following they had ‘ the
acceptable company of Tabitha Middleton of Wellingboro,’
one aforetime beguiled by ‘ the lust of the eye and the pride of
life,’ but now of a ‘humble and circumspect deportment ’
(762. 3. 442). In 1806 that of Mary Naftel of Guernsey: ‘ Sweet
is the fellowship of congenial spirits even here,’ she is reported
to have said, ‘ but what must it be with Saints and angels where
there is no alloy’ (762. 4. 164). Following her in 1809 came
Sarah Lamley of Tredington, who in a ministry of sixty years
visited nearly every one of the Quarterly Meetings of England
and Wales (738). She was accompanied by Elizabeth Townsend,
a sensitive, suffering woman upon whom ‘the enemy was often
permitted to come down like a flood.’ Yet she steeled herself
to this service and, ‘ after becoming more resigned to the Lord’s
requiring, the language of her heart was, “‘if I perish, let it be
at thy footstool ’’’ (725). In 1810 there came Rebecca Byrd,
“whose concern was not only to gather the people to Christ
that he might be their saviour from sin, but that, taught of him,
they might be brought to a clear understanding of the spirituality
and peaceableness of his kingdom’ (735). In 1833 came Luke
Howard, the pioneer in meteorology and correspondent of
Goethe (853. 310).
It was not by these visitations only that the Women’s Meeting
at Hitchin was saved from its domesticity and given a larger view.
For years many of its members had attended the Annual Assembly
of Women Friends in London; and it was due not a little to
Mercy Ransom and Esther Tuke that the scruples of the men
xlvi. They also taught them how to smoke. Edward Pease speaks of seeing
them ‘ strolling down Melksham street with their pipes in their mouths ’ (824).
206 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
were overcome at last and the Assembly endowed with full powers
as ‘The Yearly Meeting of Women Friends held in London’
(xlvii). It is remarkable to see how many Hitchin women
served this newly constituted Yearly Meeting in the arduous
office of Clerk: Phoebe Lucas, afterwards Phoebe Allen, 1801-5,
1807, 1809: Ann Lucas 1811-12, 1814-15, 1818, 1820, 1824:
Esther Seebohm 1846, 1855-6. It was by the care and oversight
of these clerks, ‘ the power of Christ being the authority of them,’
that the purpose of their founder was fulfilled, ‘ that they might
ANN LUCAS
all labour in His power, and in His grace, and in His spirit, and
in His light, to do His service and His business in Truth and
Righteousness ’ (853. 113-18).
It would have been fitting to close this long line of Hitchin
xlvu. There is a tradition that when Joseph Gurney Bevan saw the delega-
tion of women advancing towards the table with Esther Tuke, whom Rebecca
Jones calls ‘ a sort of princess ’ at 1ts head, he audibly said in the words of King
Ahasuerus, ‘ What is thy petition, Queen Esther, and 1t shall be granted thee?
What 1s thy request, and it shall be performed ’ (853. 116).
THE QUAKERS 207
Ministers with Thomas Shillitoe, 1754-1836, who came to
Hitchin in the seventh year after Mercy Ransom died. But
there has been more than a little reference to him already in this
chapter; and it is proposed to give a full account of him in the
companion volume of Hitchin Worthies. ‘Those who are impatient
to know more should consult the bibliography, section ‘ The
Quakers,’ at the conclusion of this book.
XXIV
STAGNATION AND DECLINE
We can now pass on to study the later periods of Hitchin
Quakerism—an era marked in the main by stagnation and decline,
but lit up with many a gleam of evangelical fervour and missionary
zeal. ‘ ‘The times are poor, and a famine seems to threaten in
the land,’ said Phoebe Allen, a Hitchin minister, shortly before
she died, 1857 (712. 45. 5). But even 1n these lean years there
were always ‘morsels of heavenly comfort,’ as Shillitoe was
wont to call them. However darkened the outlook, the Inner
Light was never extinguished; it flickered but did not fail.
Those who are curious to examine the decline of Quakerism
will find traces of it very early, almost with the passing of ‘ the
First Publishers of Truth.’ Casting his eyes over the Society
as a whole in 1680, Steven Crisp notes with pain how ‘ some
are holding up the truth in a bare formality, sitting down at
ease in it, and unconcerned whether the whole plant grow, either
in themselves or others ’ (851. 327). But it is not till the middle
of the next century that Hitchin Meeting was seriously affected.
Visiting here in 1749, Samuel Bownas complains that he ‘ had
but a low time ’ (672. 196). This may have been due to his own
preaching, which has been described as ‘ slow in the up-take ’;
once, indeed, when a Woman Friend interrupted him in his
sermon, he remarked to her: ‘ Have patience, ’twill be better by
and by’ (851. 550). But there 1s reason to know that lowness
was already latent in the Meeting. As a boy, Bownas had been
wont to spend the greater part of Meeting in sleep. But that
was long ago. Now with his ‘ great voice’ he was breaking in
upon the slumbers of those engaged in a sounder sleep: ‘ I found,’
he says, ‘a brave, zealous and loving people in the root of true
religion and discipline . . . but there were also some who seemed
208 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
very perfect in the form ... but, for all that, the inside
was not right, so that I found very close exercise amongst
them in warning them against the leaven of the Pharisees,
which was equally if not more hurtful to religion than that
of the publicans .. . setting forth that a form without life
would not avail ’ (851. 521).
In the year of Bownas’s visitation, the Hitchin Meeting,
replying to a Query, confesses its own sins: ‘ As to a growth in
the Truth, we may say with grief little visibly appears, for, as
iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. No convince-
ment since last year that we know of.’ In 1755 they ‘ cannot
but see with sorrow a state of indifference and negligence thro’
indulgence of ease to the flesh.’ Once again, in 1767, ‘ divers
amongst us are preserved alive in the Mistical Body and know a
growth in the Truth, but with concern we have to observe much
lukewarmness and indifference appears’ (658). There was
always more ardour in the Women’s Meeting; but by 1754
they, too, are ‘ sorrowfully affected under the consideration of a
lukewarm state that is gotten in amongst us.’ It might have
been thought that the visit of John Woolman in the sixth month
of 1772 would have stirred them into animation, but they do not
even record his name upon their minutes (xlvii1). ‘ Very perfect
in the form,’ they punctually observe their Quarterly and
Monthly Meetings, but more and more often those sadly signi-
ficant words ‘ Mett as Useall ’ are all that their Clerk can record.
‘Are not Monthly Meetings and Quarterly Meetings going on
from quarter to quarter and from year to year,’ asked Thomas
Shillitoe, ‘ satisfying themselves with telling the same dismal
tale: ‘‘ We hope some amongst us witness a growth in the Truth ’’?
Now if the ground of this hope were called for, I fear it would
not be found in the general to be that well-grounded hope which
gives victory over the world. . . . So little is there of the arising
of that Divine Life which is the crown of all our assemblings
together ’ (743. 1. 208).
xlvui. Here, as elsewhere, the first umpression was unfavourable. His
undyed homespun clothes, his grey-white beaver hat, his generally dishevelled
appearance, created such misgivings that 1t was thought best to leave his visit
unrecorded. It was only after his death, four months later, they found they
had entertained an angel unawares. There was an almost indecent haste to
exalt the memory of this Minister whom, whilst living, they had hardly deigned
to notice. As quickly as possible Hitchin Meeting procured copies of his
Tracts Concermng the Mimstry to distribute amongst 1ts members.
THE QUAKERS 209
Writing his manuscript History of Hitchin in 1815, Dunnage
remarks, ‘ The Friends in this town are numerous and respectable ’”
(28. 181). There in that word ‘ respectable’ you have one
cause of the decline. ‘Too soon cured of what Shaftesbury
had called ‘the distemper of enthusiasm,’ they had fallen
away from the daring vision of their early days into the besetting
sin of orthodoxy. It was not by might of worldly influence,
nor by power of worldly riches, but by the Spirit that their fathers
had chained down the red dragon of Persecution in those early
days. Their task—less dangerous but no less difhcult—it was
to slay that other dragon of ‘Tradition with the light of a thousand
years glittering upon its scales. Many of them, alas! were
confronting it not with the sword of the spirit but with the placid
pens of persuasion and the stiff shirts of respectability. They
were setting up a Tradition of their own, no less demoralizing
than that which they sought to destroy. They were becoming
as ritualistic in the utter absence of form as others were in their
excess of form. They whose fathers had overcome the world
were now by that same world being overcome. Much has been
written of the love of riches that was at this time creeping into
the fold; and at Yearly Meeting in 1794 an Irishman appears
to have blurted out the truth: ‘'The people are much after the
world, and afraid to let slip any opportunity of making money.’
But there were other temptations at work, no less deceitful than
riches. For one thing, whereas they had been compelled to
stand aloof from all political activities by their refusal to take an
oath, now one by one, as Friends grew more ‘ respectable,’ the
civil disabilities were being removed. In this sense also they
were going into the world. By the urge of conscience, or the
persuasion of their fellow men, one Quaker after another was
beginning to wear the ‘ Livery of the Publick ’; in spite of all the
past, some thought it no betrayal of their First Principles to be-
come even Justices of the Peace, so called. ‘To others it seemed
a declension, an occasion for misgiving and shaking of the head.
As for Thomas Shillitoe, he was ‘ much exercised by the tempta-
tions and snares that may be laid for us.” He thought that ‘ the
world thus taking us by the hand was no sign of our advancement
in the Truth.” Ann Lucas, 1769-1853, a Minister for more
than fifty years, added the weight of her testimony to his. ‘ We
should do more wisely,’ she declared one day at Meeting, ‘ to
cherish the last words bequeathed to us by our faithful servant
VOL. II. re)
210 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
and establisher George Fox: ‘“‘ My desires are that you may be
kept out of all the beggarly elements of the world, which is below
the Spiritual region, to Christ the Head and hold him ”’ ’ (647. 6).
XXV
THE EVANGELICAL CONTROVERSY
But there, again, was another occasion for stumbling. How
were they to lay hold upon Christ? Was each one to follow
after him according to the light within—a light varying so strangely
in intensity with each separate soul of man—or were they as a
body to dwell together in unity like his first disciples, and order
their lives according to the infallible authority of Holy Writ?
That was the problem which in that testing time, 1820-1840,
was rending their beloved Society asunder. In America it had
already led to a most disastrous schism. Shillitoe, who was there
in the midst of it, 1826-1829, had told them of the appalling
scenes he had witnessed in New York Yearly Meeting of 1828,
when the Hicksite party, being baffled in their attempt to wrest
the minute out of the hands of the Clerk, endeavoured to prevent
his reading of it by striking their sticks against the wall of the
meeting-house and stamping on the floor with their feet and
umbrellas. ‘ They hooted and hissed and some were heard to
swear: the windows being down, the tumult was so great, people
outside the house compared it to thunder at a distance ’ (743. 2.
311-13). In the Beaconite Controversy of 1835-6 they in England
likewise were to pass through the refiner’s fire, and many of their
members were purged away. ‘ This year,’ writes William Lucas
of Hitchin in 1836, ‘ is remarkable for a great secession of members
from our Society owing to a considerable difference in religious
views from those which had always been deemed our peculiar
principles ’ (24). He was of the older school which remained.
Those of the younger, evangelical school, who felt that Quakerism
had lost its driving force and was dwindling into a mere code of
morals, were constrained to go out into the wilderness and seek
a more ‘ spiritual region’ there. It was a sorrowful time; and
yet, as one looks back upon it, one sees the blessings that it
brought. The gold that came out of that refiner’s fire had a
purity and a currency not found before.
It is from this period undoubtedly one dates that blending of
THE QUAKERS 211
mysticism and evangelical fervour which is the hall-mark of the
modern Quaker. In Hitchin Meeting from 1820 onwards it is
surprising to see how much leaven of Gospel teaching was at
work. Clearly those who stayed in the Society had learned
something from those who left. There is less and less insistence
on the inner light in every solitary man; more looking up to
Christ as the Light of the world. Shillitoe himself is an interesting
example of this transition period. Here was a typical, traditional
member of the Society of Friends—one who held that not in
any pomp of ritual, or sacramental rite, or page of sacred book,
but in the very heart of humanity, was the true God to be found.
To him as to John Chrysostom ‘the real Shekinah is Man.’
To one so persuaded it was not likely that the new teaching
would appeal. After listening impatiently to one evangelical
discourse, he is reported to have said: ‘Why, John Wilkinson,
thou wouldst make us mere Bible Christians.’ ‘Yet at times
he seemed on the verge of being one himself. ‘ He has rather
a singular concern on hand now,’ writes John Thompson of
Hitchin to his brother Edward in 1823, ‘ that of reading the
Scriptures to some very depraved and profligate inhabitants of
a certain part of the town [Hollow Lane and Dead Street], which
has from generation to generation been noted for the filth and
depravity of its inhabitants. "Thomas thinks he feels it a duty
to go and invite them to hear the Scriptures read, and accordingly
a room in the centre of the lane has been procured (xlix). A
committee of Friends of whom I am one have consented to assist
Thomas ’ (they were, in fact, appointed more as bodyguard than
Bible Students), ‘ and we have arranged for twelve of us to take
it alternately, three at a time. I hope it will be of service, but
I shall be glad when the first time is over, as it is uncertain how
we may be received by them. I don’t know any town or street,
either at Yeovil or Sherborne, that can be compared with this
vile place, so that there is some room for amendment amongst
them’ (721). There, surely, you have the outward and visible
signs of a Bible Christian. And for the inward you have his own
dying words in 1836: ‘ I feel I have nothing to depend upon but
the mercies of God in Christ Jesus. I do not rely for salvation
xlix. W. J. Fitch, head master of the British School, used to speak to his boys
about these first readings of the Bible in that quarter of the town. There are
many who remember the impressive way in which Fitch himself read the
Scripture. Although he always wore his tall white hat in school he would
reverently remove it before opening the Bible.
212 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
upon any merits of my own; all my own works are as filthy rags ;
my faith is in the merits of Christ Jesus and in the offering
he made for us’ (743. 2. 424). Could even a Methodist say
more?
Right through the forties, fifties and sixties of the last century
this evangelical fervour was encouraged, but none of those who
had been cast out in the thirties for holding the same views were
received into membership again. ‘ John Pease was at Meeting,’
records a Hitchin Elder in 1851, ‘ impressively engaged on the
importance of looking unto Christ, and enlarged on the infinite
love and compassion of the Lamb. If we had more such men
among us how different would our Society be.’ In 1867 the
Bible itself was read for the first time in open Meeting (853. 885).
It is not until late in the sixties that one observes the doubt
creeping in whether they were not departing from their first
principles and in danger of losing their identity amongst the
other dissenting bodies. In 1868, when Frederick Marsh went
so far as to tell Hitchin Monthly Meeting, ‘ I own the Bible and
the Bible only as the Christian’s guide, and by its teachings I
stand or fall,’ they ‘vere relieved to discover another reason
why he should be deprived of his membership (679).
XXVI
REVIVAL OF PERSECUTION
This evangelical awakening would appear to have come too
late and lasted too short a time to check the decline that had
previously set in. One by one, by death, by marriage, by disown-
ment, by resignation, ‘ having found themselves more edified
by attending the worship of the Establishment,’ the members
melted away. Their number falls from 200 in 1750 to roo in
1850; and from that again to 50 in 1929. The neighbouring
Meetings were in a still more grievous plight. ‘They not only
declined but disappeared. In 1778 Stotfold was discontinued
and the Meeting-house was sold. In 1845 Ashwell was converted
into a British School. Royston ceased to meet in 1848. Cranfield
was closed in 1849 (679). At Baldock, the original home of
Quakerism in these parts, it has to be reported that ‘ the Meeting
is held irregularly as there is only one resident Friend.’ He
sends piteous appeals to Hitchin Friends begging them to come
THE QUAKERS 213
and sit with him. ‘The Meeting Houses closed within the
present century,’ observes William Ransom in 1882, ‘ has claimed
our serious consideration.” Now and again, as at Hitchin in
1825, the members are able to rejoice over one new Friend
received by ‘convincement’: ‘I have for some time,’ writes
Mary Ann Fryer in her application, ‘ been convinced of the
insufficiency of self-activity with respect to worship, and drawn
into a state of quiet waiting, and am thereby united to Friends
in the different branches of their religious testimonies ’ (658).
But for the most part the Meeting was reduced to living on its
birthright members. And many of these were disposed to
forgo that birthright for something that only another religious
Society could give—to wit, the outward sacraments. One by
one the old familiar faces disappeared, and desire for sacraments
was the reason most frequently alleged. ‘The orthodox Quaker
view may be expressed in the words of James Hack Tuke, a
leading member of the Hitchin Meeting through the last half
of the nineteenth century: ‘I in my heretical way,’ he said in
writing to one of his Anglican friends, ‘ feel that your Symbols
have taken the place of the Life, and the mere fact of participating
in the outward bread and wine is almost substituted for the inward
and spiritual eating and drinking of his flesh and his blood ’ (810),
Yet there were many who found these outward symbols, so
called, more sufficing, and indeed more inward than the inward
light. ‘The minute-books record the resignations of Francis
Lucas in 1869, Edward and Mary Manser and Ann and Matilda
Lucas in 1871, Alice Mary and Marianna Lucas in 1874, Mary
Thompson in 1876 and Catherine Thompson in 1877. ‘I
leave the Society,’ writes the last named, ‘ with best wishes for
its welfare and earnestly desire to give up none of that simplicity
of life and that spirituality of faith and worship in which I feel
it such a privilege to have been educated ’ (658). On the side of
those who stay there is the same discernment and generosity
of soul. They had passed beyond the stage of toleration. They
no longer looked upon themselves as a peculiar people. They
could say at last with William Penn: ‘ the humble, meek, merciful,
just and devout souls are everywhere of one religion; and, when
death has taken off the mask, they will know one another, though
the divers liveries they wear here makes them strangers’ (655. 1.
842). As they crossed the name of Samuel Burlingham out
of the book of members in 1879, they added these comfortable
214 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
words: ‘ Though he is thus separated from our branch of the
Christian Church, we may still be joined in fellowship as members
of the universal church which unites in one Body all the followers
of our Lord Jesus Christ ’ (679).
It is painful to see how the Quakers, as they began to exhibit
more tolerance towards their fellow Christians, were themselves
recompensed with less. Here, at any rate, some who were
followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, and many who were not,
rejoiced indecently at the decline of Quakerism, and seized so
good an opportunity to work off their old scores. For the
century or more during which the Friends had ruled Hitchin
it had not been easy for their enemies to say just what they
felt. But when the leading lights amongst them passed into the
Church and the dead hand of Quakerism was removed, the
‘mobbish part of the people ’ began to ‘ study destruction and
their lips to talk of mischief.’ Had they not suffered long enough
‘the silent reproof of their better practice ’? Were they for ever
to be thee’d and thou’d by this singular people? Undersold
by these cheese-parers in shop and market? Deprived of the
decencies and courtesies of life by the rude, unmannerly plainness
of these prigs? It was a pity the Toleration Act had spared
them. Still, they could have the pleasure of smashing their
windows on Victory nights, and they could pelt them on their
way to Meeting. It was Sydney Smith who was wanting about
then ‘ to roast just one Quaker, only one, for the satisfaction of
the thing.” But here they desired a holocaust. ‘That blessed
consummation the law forbade; but they did take leave and
licence on the 5th of November, 1815, to burn in effigy those
unpatriotic citizens ‘ whose hearts had ne’er within them burned,’
at the famous victory of Waterloo. On that wild, lawless night,
thirty-one respectable townsmen, led by the Clerk to the Justices,
the beadle, the church clerk, and a churchwarden, broke into
the yard of two Hitchin Friends, feloniously took away a quantity
of faggots, heaped them high in the Market-place for all the
world to see, hoisted the melancholy figures of the Friends
alongside the melancholy figure of old Fawkes, danced round
and round with hoots and yells of execration, and made one
glorious bonfire of the lot.
The pleasure of this auto-da-fé was somewhat damped the
following morning, for the two Quakers whipped out warrants
against the thirty-and-one. It was still more damped at the
THE QUAKERS 215
next court of Quarter Sessions, when they were required to make
restitution and bound over in heavy penalties to keep the peace.
But they hated and continued to hate the Quakers none the less.
The present writer has a lively memory of one choleric and
picturesque townsman who was constantly wishing aloud that
he might ‘ wake up one morning and find the lifeless forms of
/
THE QUAKER WHOSE EFFIGY WAS BURNED
the whole gang of Hitchin Quakers dangling from the chestnut-
trees in Bancroft.’ To him, in Wordsworth’s appropriate
phrase, they were ‘all silent and all damned.” Amongst the
town officials also one may trace this growing hostility to the
Quakers. When they distrained for tithes, or ‘ Priest’s wages’
as the Friends insultingly termed them, they no longer permitted
216 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
the owner to point out what he could best dispense with. ‘They
seized what would give him the most pain and inconvenience to
lose. If the distress must be chronicled as usual in the Friends’
Book of Sufferings, why then, they urged, let it be suffering indeed.
And so one finds them taking away necessaries, like half a pound
of tea and two handkerchiefs from Mercy Crawley, Mary Sparrow’s
warming-pan and all her pewter plates, John Thompson’s
feather-bed, and actually the coconut-matting from off the
Meeting-house floor (695).
If they thought by these petty persecutions to ruffle the
equanimity, or by one hair’s-breadth to alter the resolution, of
the Friends they were much mistaken. Their grandfathers
could have taught them better. All that they did was received
uncomplainingly and with a stony silence. It needs a Quaker to
take a rise out of a Quaker, and that is seldom tried. So far as
the Friends were concerned there was no hitting back. They
had been well trained in the tactics of restraint. They knew
well enough that silence is the unbearable repartee. There is
an evident satisfaction in that comment of Robert Barclay upon
those ‘ proud ones who have fumed, fretted and gnashed their
teeth ’ against their exasperating unconcern: ‘it doth so vex
the serpentine nature in the children of darkness’ (645. 361).
Apart from that outward satisfaction they had to consider their
inward peace of soul. ‘ It were better,’ said the apostle Penn,
‘to be of no Church than to be bitter for any’ (655. 1. 843).
Also they knew by long painful experience how to lay these
sufferings to spiritual account. ‘ Let it not seem hard to you,’
said Isaac Gray of Hitchin, ‘ to be bowed down and Despicable
in the Eyes of men. It 1s the necessary consequence of faithful-
ness; a gradual dying to that which otherwise would bring a
Total Death upon the Soul ’ (676).
AXXVIT
SAMUEL AND PHOEBE ALLEN
It is characteristic of them that, within two years of the secession
of so many of their members in 1836, and in the face of this
renewed hostility, they should have erected another Meeting-
house twice as large as the first (1). But the revival which they
1. This building, which is still in use, was designed by F. W. Dankes of
Gloucester and cost about £2,000. The site was given by Joseph Sharples.
PHOEBE ALLEN
SAMUEL ALLEN
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
From a painting by Samuel Lucas
THE QUAKERS 217
ardently expected in this spacious Meeting-house was not to
be vouchsafed. Rather it seemed as though this little Society
more rapidly declined. The dwindling few who sat in the
Ministers’ gallery looked down with their wise, inflexible faces
upon the dwindling many on the members’ benches. In spite
of its newness, the house seemed haunted with the ghosts of
those who had gone. There was a silence as of absent friends,
a silence that could be felt. What mere organization could do,
that they did. In 1865 they enlarged their borders and introduced
new life by amalgamating Hitchin and Baldock Preparative
Meetings, Hitchin and Hertford Monthly Meetings, Herts and
Beds Quarterly Meeting, and that of Bucks and Northants.
Over their own Particular Meeting, moreover, they grew more
circumspect. In 1869 they deputed Frederic Seebohm, Alfred
Ransom, John ‘Thompson and Edward Sewell ‘to visit those
who habitually absent themselves from our meetings for worship ’
(658). William Ransom was asked to report in 1873 upon the
condition of the mid-week meeting: ‘ The attendance of Men
Friends,’ he complains, ‘is much less, owing to the business
competition of the present day; and it must be acknowledged
that there is not the same determination to break away from
business as was shown by Friends formerly. The absence of
our younger Friends is especially marked ’ (11) (785).
There in that last sentence lies another cause of decline.
In the eighteenth century, as already shown, you have the re-
spectability of middle age falling like a blight upon the Society;
and now in the nineteenth there began to be signs of premature
old age. Old age with its caution and its love of compromise
had come upon them. You may hear it in that adage of Coleridge
in his decline so often quoted by a leading Elder of the Hitchin
Meeting: ‘ Truth is a good dog, but beware of barking too close
on the heels of an error lest you get your brains knocked out.’
In the early days of the Society Friends did not talk like that.
No wonder the young men and maidens had departed. Youth
will follow the gleam; and to the younger Friends of that time
The sale of the old burial-ground at Ippollitts to Sir Francis Willes, and that of
the old Meeting-house in Quakers Alley to Joseph Lucas brought in £740.
The balance was ‘ readily subscribed amongst the members ’ (658).
li. ‘ I wish we could hold more of our meetings 1n the evening,’ observed
Samuel Lucas. ‘ In the morning we are so full of this life, I may say of the
pride of life. ‘Towards evening the shadows lengthen, and the mind feels the
solemnity of the closing day ’” (711).
218 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
it seemed as though the vision, the adventure, yea and Truth
itself, had gone out from their select Society into the highways
and byways of the world. In 1856 the Quarterly Meeting of
Beds and Herts set up a committee ‘ to enquire into the spiritual
welfare of the younger Friends’; and Samuel Lucas, as its
chairman, issued a report which, if adopted, would have saved
many a resignation (764). In the understanding of youth,
however, he was in advance of his time. Resigning membership
in 1869, his brother, Francis Lucas, had said: ‘ We shall be glad
to have our two children’s names retained on the list of members,
that they may have the option of remaining Friends, should they
wish to do so, when they are old enough to judge for themselves.’
That was an enlightened proposition, though to the Monthly
Meeting it ‘ appeared undesirable.’ But there was not the least
doubt which way those children would go. Epistles came to
them, addressed as ‘beloved young Friends,’ from Yearly
Meeting, 1868, bidding them ‘ uphold the high standard of
the Christian by the elevation and refinement of your minds, and
by the chasteness and propriety of your outward deportment and
attire.” Other epistles, addressed to them from their own
Particular Meeting, 1867, advised ‘the practice of retirement
for the private reading of the Holy Scriptures, lest by the attractive
literature of the day and the exciting scenes that surround us
you should have your attention diverted from the things which
are not seen and are eternal.” In spite of these admonitions,
or possibly because of them, they gradually fell away and, ‘ when
they were old enough to judge,’ followed their parents into that
Church which had so cruelly persecuted their forefathers in the
days of old.
‘ The meetings are cold and lifeless,’ said one of these ‘ beloved
young Friends,’ ‘the Ministers are of another age’ (647. 7).
That in a measure was true. To young Friends, the three or
four bowed spirits in the Ministers’ gallery must have seemed
preternaturally old (li). But they were not by any means as
old and lifeless as they looked. One thinks of Samuel Allen,
1771-1868, tottering down to Meeting in his ninety-fifth year
“under feelings of great weakness; yet he thought he must revive
the words amongst us “ ye are not your own, ye are bought with
a price, wherefore glorify God in your body and in your Spirit,
lu. ‘ Thy aged grandmother,’ writes William Lucas to his son Samuel in
1823, ‘ continues able to get to meeting pretty frequently in a Sedan ’ (711. 1).
THE QUAKERS 219
which are His”’’ (647. 8). ‘ Asa child,’ said an elderly Hitchin
Friend to the present writer, ‘my heart would sink within me
when Samuel rose up to speak. Never have I heard anything
so dismal and unending. Yet if we fidgeted or forgot for one
moment to sit upright in our seats we weresoundly scolded’ (647. 9).
* He was a man,’ describes another Hitchin Friend, ‘ of insignificant
appearance, and much disfigured with the smallpox. But in
spite of a shattered constitution and a highly nervous disposi-
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JAMES BACKHOUSE
tion (liii) he lived to be ninety-seven. ‘ His life was despaired
of at twenty-seven,’ as Ralph Lucas once remarked, ‘ and his
death at ninety-seven.’ People could never understand how
lui. The least departure from Quaker tradition 1n apparel or appearance
would drive him into agonies of mind. On one occasion, as he arrived at
Meeting, he found James Backhouse there, wearing a long beard, a thing which,
since 1t reminded them of John Perrot’s extravagances, had always been viewed
with displeasure by the Society of Friends. One glance was enough. ‘Turning
swiftly on his heels, Allen made for home. On the road he was met by a
Friend, who inquired with some concern why he was hurrying away. ‘ That
220 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
he had contrived to win the charming Phoebe Lucas for his
wife. In her playful way she would sometimes tell over the
number of her suitors and, when she came to speak of the success-
ful one, would say: ‘I went through the wood, and through
the wood, and took a crooked stick at last.” But she invariably
concluded with a warm expression of love to him and thankfulness
for the happiness of her married life. Phoebe Allen herself
was a Minister for fifty-nine years. ‘ Endowed in youth,’ says
her Testimony, ‘ with liveliness of disposition and high flow of
spirits, she affords a striking example of natural vivacity, regulated
and restrained by the love and fear of God. . . . In a long course
of unobtrusive devotedness she adorned the doctrine of God
our Saviour’ (712. 45. 5). The quietness of her closing years
reminds one again of Mercy Ransom: ‘ Stillness before God,’
she declared, ‘is the one thing needful to endeavour after in all
God may permit to befall.” Yet before the stillness of her preach-
ing no evil thing could stand. ‘ Phoebe Allen ministered this
morning,’ writes a Hitchin diarist in 1851, when she was eighty-
one; “she expressed the feeling very like Him whom the winds
and the sea obey. Would there were more like Phoebe Allen
amongst us ’” (757).
XXVITI
VISITING MINISTERS
Old age and stillness of soul disinclined these two worthies
for journeyings afield in the course of their ministry. ‘I am
well satisfied,’ observed Phoebe Allen, ‘ with keeping my burrow.’
And furthermore it was beginning to be felt that the apostolic
age was over. But happily for those in Hitchin Meeting there
were still Ministers who came to them. Again and again they
were visited by Samuel Tuke, 1784-1857, the most eminent
Friend of his time, whose sagacity as Clerk to the Yearly Meeting
through the critical years of the Beaconite troubles had saved
the Society from disaster (853. 2. 795). He as a boy had been
educated at the school of George Blaxland at Hitchin. The
house of his aunt Elizabeth Wheeler there had been like a second
home to him. It was a discourse by an old man named
beard,’ exclaimed Allen, ‘ that beard! I cannot stand :t, I cannot stand :t!’
Apparently Samuel Lucas could not stand it either. In his sketch-book he
makes a caricature of Backhouse and the beard, and writes underneath :1t:
*‘ An approved Munster for the Bushmen.’
THE QUAKERS 221
Special (liv), at Hitchin Meeting, on the words ‘To obey is
better than Sacrifice,’ that had altered the current of his life.
And now at the end of a lifetime in the service of Truth it was
pleasant to him to revisit his early haunts. ‘ The old Friends,’
he writes in 1852 after ‘ a tarriance of three weeks with my son
James,’ ‘the old Friends, the widow Ann Lucas, and Samuel
and Phoebe Allen, are beautifully green in old age, and frequently
give lively communications in the ministry. But I cannot help
inquiring with a feeling of sadness, where are to be found their
successors?’ Of his own ministrations here he speaks but rarely:
‘I attended the Hitchin Meeting,’ he writes in 1824, ‘ where
soon after sitting down the passage “‘ There is a river, the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God” arrested my atten-
tion. I hoped I might have continued in silence throughout the
Meeting, but before the close I felt such an impression of awful
necessity to speak, and such an entire abstraction of the fear
of the world, that I ventured to rise under a trembling sense
of my own greater need to be ministered unto than to minister ’
(768).
Another prominent Minister who frequented the Meeting in
this later period was Benjamin Seebohm (786; 787; 801; 803;
806; 808; 839; 852). He, like Samuel Tuke, had found a second
home in Hitchin. Born near Pyrmont in Germany in 1798,
he came to England in 1814 through the leading of Stephen
Grellet. In 1831, being then a prospering wool-merchant at
Bradford and a member of Brighouse Monthly Meeting, he
married Esther Wheeler of this parish. After thirty years’ service
in the ministry, including five memorable years, 1846-1851, in
America, he came to rest from his labours in Luton. But even
then, broken in health as he was, he found it impossible to rest.
He loved to drive over to Hitchin, where his son Frederic—
now married to Mary Ann Exton—was in partnership as a
banker with James Hack Tuke. And, to use a favourite expression
of his, he loved to be ‘ fruitful in the field of offering and joyful
liv Writing his memorrs 1n old age, Tuke remembered the original Christian
name and forgot the surname. Special West, 1740-1817, was a son of Friends
resident in Southwark, Surrey. In early life he ran away from home, enlisted
as a soldier and went abroad. Remarkable preservation steadied him, and on
the conclusion of the war he returned to England. In 1773 he married Hannah
Hagger and moved from Barking, Essex, to Hertford, and occupied a farm at
Northaw. He had very few advantages of education, but became an able
Minister. He died at his house at Bengeo.—Yournal of Friends Historical
Soctety, vol 23, p. go.
222 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
in the house of prayer.’ His impressive figure was rarely absent
from Monthly and Quarterly Meeting. He presided over endless
committees and issued numberless reports. But it was by his
piercing, prophetic utterance, his evangelical passion, his power
of ‘ feeling-out into the states of others,’ that he brought a sort
of second summer into the winter of this Meeting’s discontent.
This sad company of ageing people, sitting together in the
twilight of despondency, suddenly saw a new light. Whilst they
listened to this ‘ Golden Trumpet of the North,’ as he was popu-
larly called, they forgot how cold and lifeless they had been.
For a season there was a revival of those ‘ blessed, heavenly,
powerful and thundering meetings,’ which their fathers had
known so well. They would never see it after this fashion again.
‘I have never heard any ministry,’ said Whittier, the poet,
‘ characterized by so much power and unction as that of Benjamin
Seebohm. There was a depth of thought in it that appealed
especially to cultivated men.’
By an Elder of Hitchin Meeting he was likened, as he well
might be, to William Dewsbury, ‘ whose testimony was such
as the earth shook before him, the Mountains did melt at the
power of the Lord’ (831. xl). ‘ My soul was poured out like
water, and all my bones shook,’ confessed Sybil Jones, who
trembled under his ministry in 1850 (853. 895). One smiles
to see that the author known as Robert Dudley [probably James
Baldwin of Westfield, Indiana], refers to him always as Benjamin
Seefoam—a fancy name, no doubt, but one that gives a lively and
living image of the man. He sailed like a Berserker upon the
sea of Truth. The froth of prophetic frenzy was constantly
upon his lips. ‘There are some living amongst us still who hold
a vivid recollection of his impassioned speech. To the last he
maintained the old-fashioned habit of singing or chanting what
he had to say. His voice as it rose from the awful solemnity of
the silent Meeting would seem to hover motionless for a time,
as if communing with itself and uncertain of its way. Then
like some mountain eagle it would lazily flap its wings and glide,
still brooding, over the lower hills. Suddenly, as if stung by
some compelling thought, some heavenly vision out of this vale
of tears, it would begin to soar, higher and higher with ever-
increasing ecstasy of speed—the round world soon but a speck
in the distance, the mountains lost to view—towering up and
up to that supernal region where the morning-stars sing together
svon’y janueg Aq sunuied & woly
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& Thomas Shilliloe 9 Krealhs
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THE QUAKERS 223
for joy and the Children of Light stand undazzled and unashamed
before the throne of God. Awhile on these blessed heights,
where only the pure in heart may breathe, then with reluctant
wings wheeling down through the interstellar spaces, down to
the mountains of meditation, down to the dreaming hills, down,
down, down, until it would sink hushed to sleep upon that calm
sea of silence out of which it came.
XXITX
MINISTERS FROM AMERICA
These were the giants of that age of dwarfs. In an unfaithful
generation they kept the faith; in a time of spiritual darkness
they cherished the Inner Light. But one should not forget
those devoted men and women who came from afar upon the
self-same service. From New York in 1794 came David Sands
on a travelling ministry to Europe of eleven years. A preacher
emphatically of the evangelical type, he has been described as
“swept by sudden incursions and possessed of inspirational
openings.’ Shortly before reaching Hitchin he had burst into a
dancing-hall and treated the astonished revellers to an address
they were not likely to forget: ‘ My friends, for what purpose is
this gay company assembled? Is it to worship Almighty God;
him from whom all your favours and blessings flow . . . or have
you rather suffered yourselves to be led captive by the enemy
of your soul’s peace, who for a season may hold out bright and
pleasing allurements to tempt your unwary feet to stray from
the true fold of peace?’ (853. 282). From Stanford, in New
York State, in 1811 came Henry Hull, ‘ whom the Lord in his
inscrutable wisdom saw meet to prove very closely in removing
by death his aged mother, his wife and his eldest son, whilst
he was ministering in England’ (744). From New York also
in 1812 came Stephen Grellet, the Spiritual Guide of Benjamin
Seebohm—indeed, one might add of the Society itself. It was
said of him, and said truly, that ‘ he entered so deeply into sym-
pathy with afflicted humanity that it felt as if his own soul was
brought into their souls’ stead ’ (767. 1. 318). In this his second
journey to Europe he travelled over 26,000 miles and attended as
many meetings as there were days in the three years he was
absent.
224 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Oversea from Hopkinton, Rhode Island, in 1832 came that
stormy petrel, John Wilbur, who for fifteen years had seen in
the spirit ‘ this visit to the seed’ in England, and who resolved
whatever might befall to winnow that seed again. Just before
coming to Hitchin he had sat through London Yearly Meeting,
‘ suffering silence,’ weeping much, for his tears came easily, and
reflecting in his soul ‘ that great professions of faith in the atone-
ment of Jesus Christ do not of themselves bring a savour of
LINDLEY MURRAY HOAG
life, precious Sweetness, or weight, solidity and power to a
meeting.’ After a time, however, the tears gave place to the
saeva indignatio of the prophet. Wrapping his mantle about
him, he denounced their ‘ departures from the ancient truth ’;
their ‘ joining with the hireling clergy and others for the promo-
tion of religion by spreading the Scriptures’; their launching
out into foreign missions; their interference with the work of
God by ‘ human preparations ” instead of ‘ waiting for the promise
of the Father ’; and, above all, their throwing down of ‘ the hedge,
THE QUAKERS 225
the fenced wall of discipline ’ in plainness, speech and attire
(853. 511-14).
From New England in 1845 came a more gracious ambassador
of Christ in the shape of Lindley Murray Hoag. By one of his
admirers he has been described as ‘ recently widowered, very
eloquent, with such an attractive countenance and personality
that we fell under his spell at once, drew his portrait, and followed
him from meeting to meeting. After a time it was considered
advisable that he should return home for a while until the furore
had abated ’ (816. xi. 17). For his second coming the way was
more carefully prepared. When he appeared in his glory at
Yearly Meeting, Esther Seebohm is said ‘to have made some
nice remarks, not doubting that we should all be willing to
forgive an erring brother ... and cautioned women Friends
against so much following about and admiration of poor Instru-
ments, and that they might not be content with a superficial
view of things which led to this sort of conduct’; with which
nice but cutting remarks the wings of this angel-minister were
clipped. Finally, from New England in 1868 came Eli Jones,
one of the best-known Ministers of his time, and dedicated like
Woolman to the cause of the coloured race. He and Sybil
Jones, whom Seebohm had convinced, were on their way to
found those mission stations at Brumana and Ramallah in Palestine
which have continued unto this day (lv) (853. 905).
However serviceable these ministrations may have been,
we must not lose sight of the fact that Hitchin Meeting as a
Meeting was coming to matter less and less. One discerns a
shifting of the emphasis about this time from faith to works.
It is as though the Society was growing aware that it had been
living on itself too long. It was dying—a slow, delicious death,
no doubt, but dying none the less—of introspection, of self-
esteem, of Quietism. ‘ Nothing,’ said Esther Seebohm in 1864,
‘can exceed the quietness of my mind’ (712. N.S. 24. 234).
Of this slow decline the causes are not far to seek. For one
thing there had been far too much intermarriage amongst the
Iv. For the sake of the American readers of this book I will set down the
names of some other Ministers of the New World who visited Hitchin: Will:am
Matthews and Ann Jessop from North Carolina, 1785; George Dillwyn from
Philadelphia, 1788; Joseph Cloud from North Carolina, 1803; Benjamin
White from Pennsylvania, 1818; Damiel Williams from Indiana, 1857; John
L. Eddy from Ohio, 1861; Susan Howland from New Bedford, 1859; Rachel
Binford from North Carolina, 1878.
VOL. II. P
226 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
members, intermarriage of body and intermarriage of mind.
There had been an unhealthy shutting of themselves up as a
peculiar people, so that it was difficult, at least for younger Friends,
to breathe. Then again there had been so much concern to die
becomingly that they had overlooked the necessity to live. With
a recognition of the danger there was a beginning of the cure.
After the sixties one hears less and less of those interminable,
introspective Journals. The ‘ bestowing elaborate Encomiums
upon Persons deceased ’ is not so much encouraged. There is
less craving for a place in Piety Promoted. The Meetings
dwindled; one by one the aged Ministers were carried to the
grave; but the life of the Society, released for service in the world
and rejoicing once again in new-found contact with reality,
abounded more and more. ‘The one was to increase, the other
to decrease.
XXX
PEACE AND ANTI-SLAVERY WORK
When Esther Wheeler of Hitchin was in attendance on her
blind grandfather, William ‘Tuke, 1732-1822, whose portrait with
that of Seebohm fronts this page, she would sometimes read to
him. On one occasion, after finishing the life of a Quaker
Minister in which the concluding scene was summarily treated,
she remarked how little was said concerning the death of so
worthy a man: ‘I reckon nought of that,’ observed Tuke, ‘a
man’s iife is his ‘Testimony ’* (786. 112). Rightly or wrongly, the
Hitchin Quakers of this last half-century have been of the same
mind as William Tuke. Their testimony has been a living
reality, and not a thing of the dead. Never has there been such
losing of the individual life to find it again in the world. Never
has there been such a getting-down to the problems of evil,
destruction and death. One can mark the change by the altered
attitude of Friendsto war. It was not enough, they felt, to witness
against this with the passive resistance of the century before.
They must be up and doing, actively engaging themselves to
end this accursed thing. ‘To arouse the conscience of the people,
the ‘ Peace Society,’ already referred to, was promoted. Like
other Societies it had its day and ceased to be; its minutes are
often uninspiring: ‘1851. Peace Meeting at Joseph Lucas’s in
WILLIAM TUKE
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THE QUAKERS 227
evening. A considerable discussion on gravestones’ (lvi). But
it has to its credit something attempted and something done.
In 1841 an appeal was made to the Archbishop of Canterbury
“to expunge from the articles of the Episcopal Church the
statement [see Article 37] that Christians are not forbidden the
use of carnal weapons.’ ‘ The Apostle,’ as he was respectfully
reminded, ‘says otherwise.’ In 1851, when there was to be
“a blasphemous consecration of colours by the Archbishop of
Paris and a Military Féte,’? some members volunteered to visit
that city and distribute copies of the Epistle of St. Peter, not
only to the French soldiery but to civilians too; ‘ for there is
SAMUEL ALLEN READING ‘ THE HERALD OF PEACE’
said to be a great eagerness on the part of many Catholics to
obtain the New ‘Testament’ (718). Meantime, individual
members of the Society were doing what they could. ‘ It brought
tears to my eyes,’ said Samuel Allen, ‘to see the Recruiting
lvi. It was customary to have no head-stones in Friends’ burial-grounds.
But 1n the fifties a movement was set on foot by John Thompson of Hitchin
and others for the adoption of unassuming semicircular memorials, all of one
size and shape, which, with some misgiving and some further diminution, were
finally adopted (851. 417).
228 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Sergeant at work in Hitchin ’; but he dogged his footsteps none
the less and seditiously spread tracts entitled Rhymes for the
People and Hints about the Army in his train (647. 8). Not soon
forgotten either was the dignified protest made by Frederic
Seebohm against the erection of a monument to Prince Louis
Napoleon in Westminster Abbey.
Another change is to be observed. For the first time these
appeals and protests met with some attention. ‘This may have
been due to the better organization of the Society; but more
likely it resulted from the remembrance of those in authority
that Thomas Shillitoe, William Allen and Stephen Grellet had
been received in audience and held in esteem by some of the
chief monarchs of Europe. In the memory of our Court at
least rang that cry of anguish from the death-bed of George IV:
‘ Oh! that Quaker—that Quaker!’ ‘The bishops and archbishops
who came to usher him into the next world had done nothing
for him in this world but speak glozing, comfortable words. Why
had they not shown him the error of his ways? It was Shillitoe
alone who had dared to tell him the truth (836. xi. 195—200).
If one passes on to study the part played by these Hitchin
Quakers in the emancipation of the slaves, the change is equally
apparent. ‘The concern which had moved the indignant soul
of Shillitoe to journey over the sea and beard the slave-owners
on their own plantations was now become the concern of every
member. ‘1779. Paid W. Forster towards obtaining information
for the abolition of the Slave Trade, £25.’ Ata ‘Town’s Meeting
summoned by Hitchin Friends in 1826 a petition was drawn
up and afterwards presented to Parliament ‘for the mitigation
and final abolition of slavery throughout the British Dominions,’
which by a Statute of 1834 was finally accomplished. The
Hitchin Anti-Slavery Society, founded at that time, busied itself
in printing and circulating the speeches of Thomas Clarkson.
The more influential Friends waited in season and out of season
on the Hertfordshire members of the House of Commons to see
if they could goad them into action. ‘The humbler souls helped
on the cause by abstaining from sugar as the main product of
slave labour (Ivii). Some even contemplated giving up the use
Ivu. ‘ I recollect,’ notes Phoebe Lucas Glaisyer in the manuscript account
of her childhood, ‘ the peculiar flavour given to gooseberry or apple puddings
when sweetened with honey, there being no sugar on the table. They were not
nearly so nice ’ (803).
Seon] jenueg Aq Surmeip e worg
¢
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THE QUAKERS 229
of soap for the same reason. Of more immediate value was the
relief work which many undertook. A generation earlier it had
been thought enough to subscribe a few perfunctory shillings
‘for fugitive slaves from America.’ Now, Friends were eager
to receive these refugees into their own homes (lIviii). By a
series of public readings which Thomas Whiting gave of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin soon after the publication of the book in 1852 that
eagerness was increased a hundredfold; indeed, the whole town
was taken as by storm. Long afterwards men would speak of
it as the greatest moment in their lives (lix). Some faint impres-
sions of the unforgettable scenes witnessed in the cottage in
Hollow Lane where the readings were given survive in a hasty
sketch made at the time by Samuel Lucas, and in a poem of
William Lucas which opens with these lines :—
“ Listen! there 1s someone reading
In that cottage dark and low
To a breathless audience, feeding
On some tale of human woe.
Through this cranny take a peep—
Such a group you ne’er beheld;
Slut and ragman, tramp and sweep,
All their vulgar clamour quelled.
See the quiet tears are stealing
Down each soiled and rugged face,
From some hidden founts of feeling,
From some fresh-touched spring of grace.’
As some sort of counterblast to Uncle Tom’s Cabin the slave-
owners spread the report that the freed slaves in Liberia were
becoming slave-owners in their turn. ‘Sad news if correct,’
observes a Hitchin Elder in his diary (757). But no one was
deceived, and no one rested from his labours until the conscience
of the whole world was cleared from this unholy traffic.
lvin. The late Edwin Ransom remembered one of these escaped slaves,
Henry Highland Garnet, so-called, being entertained by Mrs. Exton at Grove
Mill House. He was persuaded by William Ransom to go behind the sofa
where the negro sat and stroke his woolly hair, yust to make sure that 1t was
real (859 2).
lix. Uncle Tom himself [the Rev. Josiah Henson, so called] visited Hitchin
in 1877 and gave the story of his life in a public lecture.
230 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
XXXTI
PHILANTHROPIC AND MISSION WoORK
With these Friends, however, to rest from one labour was only
to be liberated for another. ‘There were so many evils from
which humanity waited to be freed; indeed, the multiplicity of
good works about this time is quite amazing. For Edward
Pease, who was frequently at Hitchin Meeting, it was too amazing.
In his diary, under June 1, 1853, he says: ‘I sometimes fear
something like a feverish philanthropic delirtrum may be becoming
wastefully prevalent over that life which is hid with Christ in
God. Societies for promotion of peace, for the use of only
free-grown cotton, an Olive Society, Ocean Penny Postage, anti-
slavery action carried to great extent in the attentions to Harriet
Beecher Stowe, and total abstinence meetings, absorb many and
drink up, I fear, the life of God ’ (824. 305).
Here at Hitchin the Friends founded a Lying-in Charity
in 1796, a Provident Institution in 1815, a Female Saving Society
in 1823, a Society for Superseding the Necessity of Climbing
Boys in 1829 (lx), a Society for Bettering the Condition of the
Poor in 1831, and a Society for the Provision of Invalid Kitchens
in Back Street in 1868 (52). Wuthout any such Society at his
back, James Hack 'Tuke, ‘ under a sense of individual duty,’
worked year after year in the famine-stricken areas of Ireland
(790; 793; 810). In the same solitary way that ‘ well-approved
Minister,’ Joseph S. Sewell of Hitchin, ‘ leaving the statesmen
of the Society to debate the question whether missionary work
could be undertaken without surrendering the Quaker faith in
individual guidance,’ and leaving his family to the care of God,
set out ‘ with venturing faith’ in 1865 upon his ‘ mission of
love ’ to the island of Madagascar (846; 864). Sewell and others,
having proved that Friends could do effective missionary work
by actually doing it, a Friends’ Foreign Mission Association was
Ix. In converting public opinion, and in demonstrating the effectiveness
of the new mechanical appliance for sweeping chimneys, Hitchin, under the
leadership of John Thompson, Benjamin Collins and Dr. Oswald Foster, 1s
said to have done more than any town in England. From his early youth
Foster’s heart had been affiicted by the brutal treatment of these climbing boys.
A daughter of his has described to the author how, whilst the boy climbed up
the chimney of his house 1n Bancroft, he himself would set his longest ladder
to the chimney-stack, climb laboriously up 1t rung by rung, with a glass and
a decanter held rather precariously 1n one hand, and, as soon as the half-suffocated
lad emerged, would give him a reviving draught of his very best sherry.
THE QUAKERS 231
founded in 1868 to support and extend their efforts (853. 954).
In its infancy the Association was administered from Hitchin,
for James Hack Tuke became its first Treasurer, and its successive
Secretaries, Watson Grace, Charles Linney and William Wilson,
all made their homes in the town. It was by their wise ordering
that Lucy Sewell left for Madagascar in 1872 to marry William
Johnson and assist him 1n carrying on her father’s work—a
service in which they were ‘ faithful unto death ’; for after twenty
years of devoted service they and their little child ‘ Blossom ’
were barbarously done to death in a rising of the natives in
1895 (807; 846; 864). It was under the same auspices that
Maria Feltham of Hitchin in 1880 followed the example of Eli
and Sybil Jones and dedicated her life to those missions at Brumana
and Ramallah which they had founded (879).
Servants and Ministers of Christ though she and Sewell
were, they laboured not for the conversion of the heathen, so
miscalled, but for their enlightenment as children who sat in
darkness. It was in schools and training colleges that their main
work was done. One sees a similar concern amongst the Friends
at home. Education and more education; that in their judgment
was the one thing needful. There was an indwelling of lght
in every man. ‘There was no need to bring it down from heaven
to earth. But there was need to purify and clarify the earthly
tabernacle, the ‘ poor instrument ’ through which that light must
pass. Here was another departure from the eighteenth-century
tradition; an end to the Society’s contempt for ‘ carnal learning ’;
an end to that ‘ guarded education’ which had guarded their
sons and daughters from everything, even from education itself.
In 1736, when the Clerk of Hitchin Meeting, replying to a Query,
asserted that ‘our children are accomodated with nessisari
Larning,’ the standard of education was no higher than his spelling.
Now, for the first time, the gates of knowledge were to be flung
wide open, and Fox’s noble plea for ‘the teaching everything
civil and useful in creation’ was to have its perfect way
(829. 2. 119). In 1810, sixty years before the State undertook
any responsibility for education, Hitchin Friends had set up
a Boys’ Evening School, ‘to be held during the winter months
at Thomas Dimsey’s house in Dead Street’; and they had
agreed to tax themselves at the rate of 4d. per head per week
that it might be properly run. An‘ Evening School for Females ’
was added in 1865 (647. 9).
232 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Meantime, in the fifties Joseph Sharples had founded a school
at Sunnyside, which his daughter Eliza ran, and Mary Exton
had founded another conducted by herself at Walsworth. In
1860 James Hack Tuke, inspired by the success of Joseph Sturge
and William White of Birmingham, persuaded White to visit
Hitchin, and with his help instituted an Adult School, the first
classes of which were taken by Frederic Seebohm, William and
Alfred Ransom, Lucy Sewell, Ann Lucas, Catherine Thompson,
and last but not least Mary Thompson, who was the first to
volunteer, and taught her class for more than fifty years (766).
The photographs of their horny-handed scholars, dressed up in
their Sunday best and grouped in their several classes, have been
preserved (776), together with their minute-books and registers,
the rules of their cottage-garden society, their library, their
gymnasium, their cricket and social club, and the account of
those few precious pennies which out of a fellow-feeling they
saved and sent oversea for the education of the Indians (1x1).
The minute-books and registers deserve a more careful study
than we can pause to give. It is in their pages only that one can
follow the steady growth of membership up to a maximum of
350 and the class work, Sunday and weekday, of those teachers
of the second generation, under whom the School has flourished
and continued to the present day: W. J. Fitch, J. Norman
Sheppard, William Pierson, Arthur Latchmore, T. B. Latchmore,
T. W. Latchmore, William and Alice Payne, Theodore and
Eliza Ransom, Esther and Hilda Seebohm, Robert H. Catford,
Emily Pepper and Alfred and Alice Latchmore. It is good to
see how soon those who on joining ‘ can neither read nor write,’
or who ‘ write unintelligibly ’ or ‘ read monosyllables but imper-
fectly ’ are made to master the rudiments, and brought, not
without labour and sorrow, into the promised land of learning.
It is pleasant to notice the preference which these sons of toil
exhibit for the useless, exquisite and idle things. When Cranston
Woodhead in 1878 ‘ gave an instructive address on The Origin
and Uses of Coal,’ it is noted by the committee with some pain
‘that only one scholar attended the whole time, and one other
Ixi. Not quite forgotten evidently was the impression made by Samuel
Smith, the American historian, who two generations earlier had convinced
both the old world and the new that these Red Indians were the true descendants
of the Lost Tribes of Israel. On the occasion of his visit to Hitchin in 1811
William Lucas gave four guineas ‘towards the civilization of the Indian
Natives ’ (686).
JOSEPH SHARPLES
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
THE QUAKERS 233
about two-thirds of the lecture’; whereas the year previous,
when Frederic Seebohm proposed to give a series of readings
from Tennyson ‘ to a select company of scholars,’ the unselected
multitude forced their way in and the Workman’s Hall was
packed. It is seldom that any who entered into the land of
promise returned of his own free will or folly into the wilderness
again. But some, after much sweat of brow and stammering
of tongue, declared they were ‘ too old to larn’; and some for
reasons not so reasonable grew weary and fell away. The Causes
of Leaving as set down in the register are at times whimsical
enough, but some make painful reading. Here is a brief selection:
“ Need of rest with advancing years: Rheumatism: Indifference:
Desires to have the time free: Physical obstruction makes it
difficult to read aloud: Walks with a young woman and cannot
come to school: Engaged to be married: Works all the week and
likes to be at home with wife and child on Sunday: Emigrated
to America: Drink: Killed on the Railway: Joined the Salvation
Army: Supposed to have left because others make fun of him:
Enlisted for soldier: ‘‘ Don’t want to come again ”: Gone away
for change of air: Joined the Police Force: Unsettled being out of
Work: Gone to Wesleyans: Ran away from Hitchin: Left the
town as Albert Smith: Enticed away to Church of England
schools ’ (766).
XXXIT
CONCERN FOR EDUCATION
It is clear from what has just been written that the first thought
of Friends was to bring education within the reach of those who
otherwise would have received no education at all. ‘Their second
thought was to make up for the past and educate themselves;
which they proceeded to do with such success that men began
to look less on Kendal and more on Hitchin as the intellectual
centre of Quakerism. Amongst the Elders of the Hitchin Meeting
there were several who wondered where this fresh ‘ departure ’
might lead (Ixii); but in spite of themselves they felt a certain
pride in the scientific eminence of Joseph, afterwards Lord Lister,
whom they had known as a boy in Isaac Brown’s School at
Ixii. The year following the institution of the Adult School at Hitchin
Thomas Chalk said to Samuel Lucas: ‘I fear that the Sabbath Schools and
Bible Classes may lead Friends away from their principles and into too great
activity ’ (71x. 5).
234 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Hitchin, and afterwards as a guest in many of their homes (Ixiii) ;
in the historical and religious writings of Frederic Seebohm (lxiv) ;
in the art work of Samuel Lucas and Birket Foster (Ixv) (800); in
the poetry, almost Wordsworthian in its rural charm, of Francis
Lucas; in the botanical attainments of William Dawson (799),
and the Roman excavations of William Ransom (58). To be
painter, philosopher or poet is vouchsafed to very few; but
those of humbler intellect saw to it that they employed their
talents to the full. ‘ You cannot do a better service to the world,’
said one Hitchin Elder, ‘ than by bequeathing to it a well-educated
family. Let this be your care. ‘The Lord will do the rest ’ (757).
For him the Lord did abundantly above all that he either asked
or thought, to the extent of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
But for most families it was a reward sufficient in itself to have the
light of learning and the subdued splendour of art within their
homes. They did make it their special care. ‘Their tea-parties,
formerly spent in silent rumination or small-talk, were now
become salons of polite literature. Nor were the modern sciences
despised. ‘Emily Manser drank tea here this evening,’ writes
the same Elder in 1851, ‘ and dissected a frog afterwards with
Jane’ (757). If they walked afield it was with a book in the
pocket or a sketch-book in the hand. Some enterprising spirits
like Elizabeth Wheeler would drive along the Turnpike Road
to Shefford and talk with the poet Robert Bloomfield. In 1819
she was shown the manuscript of The Farmer’s Boy, which was
sold five years later for {14. On the same occasion, knowing
that he made Aeolian harps for a living, and a half-starved living
at that, she proposed that the poet should make one for her:
Ixun William Lucas, writing to his son Samuel 1n 1824, says* ‘ We have had
the gratification lately of having under our roof my much respected cousin
J. J. Lister and Isabella with their entertaining little boy’ He speaks of the
Isaac Brown scholars in general as ‘ a nice orderly company of boys and help to
fill our Meeting-house.’
Ixi1v. Most cultivated people have read his Oxford Reformers. Many
have a bowing acquaintance with his Enghsh Village Commumty, but his
religious treatises, Zhe Era of the Protestant Revolution, The Facts of the
a bei Gospels, The Christian Hypothests, have not received the attention they
eserve.
Ixv. He had his schooling under Isaac Brown, with lessons 1n pencil drawing
under Charles Parry at the Triangle, Hitchin, and there began a lifelong
friendship with Joseph Pollard which caused him frequently in after years to
visit Highdown. ‘There are quite a number of drawings and watercolours of
Hitchin by Birket Foster still existing, and notably one of the Market-place,
reproduced at page 284 of this book (800).
THE QUAKERS 235
“I am a poor creature,’ he told her, ‘and my days of activity
are past, but I will do my best ’ (Ixvi) (647. 10).
It was perhaps meet and right that Friends should have been
so diligent in pursuit of wisdom, for ‘ she is a treasure unto men
that never faileth: which they that use become the friends of
God ’ [Book of Wisdom, vii. 14]. But to one who remembers
their austere traditions it is surprising to find them at this period
discovering a long-forbidden delight in poetry. They whose
ancestors had mistrusted even so mild a work as Thomson’s
Seasons were now ready to trust anything. No poet who ever
lived could have been less of a Quaker than Lord Byron; but
along with the rest of the world they, too, had been swept
off their feet by the impetuous torrent of his verse. He had
an almost Satanic attraction for the Hitchin Friends. ‘ That
of evil’ in each one of them, so rigidly suppressed, must have
risen up in homage to him by whom evil itself was so exultantly
expressed. On July 13, 1824, as his funeral cortége passed
through Hitchin with a black slave and Greek attendant following
behind, John ‘Thompson and some other Friends were privileged
for one memorable moment to take up the precious casket
enshrining the poet’s heart and hold it in their hands. One of
the Women Friends was ‘ scandalously reported to have kissed
it; and not without foundation ’"—for 1t had been said of her
before that she would never visit London out of fear that she
might encounter this irresistible monster of a man and commit
herself, body and soul, to him (647. 11). This cult of Byron
was, however, a mere passing phase. It is true that fifty years
later, 1874, when Tuke engaged Henry Morley to deliver a
course of lectures at Hitchin, the professor chose for his theme
The Spirit of Enghsh Poetry from the birth of Wordsworth to the
Death of Byron, as if to signify that poetry itself lay buried with
the heart of Byron. But meanwhile Phoebe Allen had been
redeeming their taste by readings from the poet Cowper, whom
she had met while visiting the Smiths of Olney; and Catherine
Thompson had been shedding abroad some of her own enthusiasm
for the Greek and German poets. In 1887 there was a memorable
reading by John Bright (lxvi1) from Paradise Regained. In 1891
Ixvi. The harp which Bloomfield made for Elizabeth Wheeler came later
into the possession of Joseph Sharples, who 1n 1871 gave it to Jane Ransom.
It 1s now 1n the possession of William Septimus Upchurch of Hitchin. It has
Bloomfield’s signature upon 1t.
Ixvu. In the religious experience of John Bright there had been a prolonged
236 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Margaret Janson Tuke delivered another course of lectures on
the poet Dante.
XXXITI
THe New VISION
It is well to emphasize this latter-day concern of Friends for
education because of the far-reaching effect it has had upon
themselves and upon their capacity for service amongst others.
In this matter they have been following the logic of their own
decision to come out into the world. The light that was once
hidden under the bushel of their ‘ guarded education’ and for
the illumination of their Select and Particular Meetings is now
‘set in the midst,’ a light to lighten the Gentiles. One by one
the Shibboleths of their little sect have been abandoned. They
have adopted the language and most of the habits of their fellow
men. One by one they have learned the arts of persuasion and
the power of divine eloquence to move the hearts of men. In
the process it may be that something has been lost. But the
gain is manifest. Never before has their testimony stood out
with so clear and wide a challenge. Never before has the glaring
and irreligious light of modern thought appeared so poor a
thing beside the purity and whiteness of their light. To dis-
passionate observers it seems as though the Friends were about
to enter into their inheritance at last. On the one hand, there
are the multitudes within the Churches whose souls amidst the
ritual splendour, the trailing clouds of incense, the surge of
festal music and the eloquence of the pulpit are disquieted within
them. On the other hand, there are the multitudes outside
the Churches whose hope has wellnigh sunk before the pitiless
logic of philosophy and the terrible analysis of science (Ixvi1i).
On every hand there are the millions who are groaning and
travailing in bondage under the scourge of war and destitution
period of despondency and doubt. Then one day Benjamin Seebohm, led as
usual by his unerring ‘ feeling’ into the ‘ secret states ’ of others, was moved
to go and minister to his need. ‘ From that day to this,’ said Bright long after-
wards, ‘ I have had no more doubts ’ (843).
Ixvin. In 1867, eight years after the Ongin of Species appeared, a namesake
of mine, John Green Hine and a good Quaker, attempted the apparently
impossible with his Strzct Harmony between Scripture and Geology: A Lecture
on the First Chapter of the Book of Genesis to show the strict and enttrre Harmony
that exists between the Mosatc Account of the Creation of the World and the
Recent Discoveries of Geology.
THE QUAKERS 237
and industrial disease. Here in the midst of these seekers, these
men of sorrow and these heavy-laden ones, stands the healing
and reconciling Quaker—a man of no self-vaunting sanctity but
of a sweet, natural goodness, keenly alive now to the problems
of the day and well equipped to confront them; a man with
the eyes of a visionary and the willing hands of a worker. Here is
the new Query, No. 10, he has set himself to answer since 1911:
‘Do you as disciples of the Lord Jesus take a living interest in
the Social condition of those around you? What place do you
give to personal service for others? Do you seek to understand
the causes of social evils and to take your right share in the
endeavour to remove them? ’
Is it a wonder that the Society of Friends begins to draw
all manner of men to itself? ‘The freedom that it offers,’ as
a member of the Hitchin Meeting, Richenda Payne, has said,
‘the underlying faith in “‘ that of God in every man ” on which
it builds, the form of worship it has adopted, bringing a great
silence into the throb of modern life, hold an appeal for a world
that is overstrained, disillusioned, restless ’ (861. 8). After two
and a half centuries of persecution, particularism and seclusion,
it seems as though the outcasts were returning to make a home
and a meeting-place in the heart of humanity. Once again the
impossible has come to pass. ‘Those whom the world rejected
have become a corner-stone of civilization. Those whom the
world sneered at as the ‘ Friends of God ’ are now acknowledged
the world over as the Friends of Man.
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SPORTS AND PASTIMES (i)
‘Let us now come to the sports and pastimes, seeing it is fit that a City
should not only be commodtous and serious, but also merry and sportful.’
—WILLIAM FITZSTEPHEN, Descriptio nobtltsstmae civitatss Londiniae,
1598.
I
EING located,’ as William Lucas used to
say, ‘in a very monotonous district,’ we
have had more need than some parishes
to cultivate our ‘ facetious and unbended
i} intervals.’ ‘ Monotonous’” is a word
much too severe for this pleasant part of
Hertfordshire, set as it is amidst the
lovely undulations of the Chiltern Hills.
But we have undoubtedly suffered from
—— that flatness of spirit that comes to all
dwellers in rural places. We have known the deadly vacuity
of country life. It was perhaps worse in the days before
we became urban and self-sufficing; but urbanity is by no
means a clear gain. You do but exchange the ‘ agricultural
depression ’ and rustic tediums for the satiety of towns. As
citizens you have to put up with what Chapman, our poet,
called ‘the leaden gravity of money-mongers,’ and for the
sake of a good example you must practise the seven deadly
virtues of the dull. Therefore it is more than ‘ fit,’ as old
Fitzstephen said, it is essential to be ‘ merry and sportful.’ to
‘quit our lives of solemn trifles and dance awhile in the sun.’
Increasingly do we see the value of ‘nonsense well-timed and
sweet stupidity,’ and learn to alleviate the monotonies of life with
what Mary, the wise daughter of that William Lucas, called ‘ the
innocent gratifications of this state of being.’
And what now of our fathers in the dark backward and abysm
of time—what alleviations did they enjoy? That ‘ Merrie
England ’ men write of so glibly, is it all a myth, or do you seem
to catch in the records, as you read, the music and the laughter
of a bygone golden age? For my part I can distinguish only the
music of pomp and circumstance: champing of horses, jingling
of harness, tourneys and trumpets, hunters and horns, the songs
1. Thanks are due to Lord Desborough, the most versatile of English
sportsmen, and to Mr. Ralph Nevill, author of Sporting Days and Sporting
Ways and The Merry Past, for their help in the revision of this chapter.
SKATING AND SLIDING ON LAX’S POND, 1846
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 239
of the minstrel, the shouts of them that feast. In this royal
manor of Hitchin, on the confines of the royal forest, these were
familiar sounds. How often would the Minsden copyholder, as
he turned his plough at the headland, look up to see the King and
his brilliant retinue emerging from Hitch Wood, following the
bridle-path to Temple Dinsley, or forward through Maydencroft
to Hitchin. You can follow them still in the names of the fields
that once belonged to the Baliols or the Kendales; and follow
the joustings and revellings with which these favourites enter-
tained their feudal lord, the King: Norman’s Bredth, Jakalon,
Pageant Field, Ladie Grove, Conquest Close, Battle Piece, Mount
Garrison, Knight’s Croft, Chamberlayn’s Mead and Castle Dyke.
But once that brilliant pageant has swept by, once the castle
door of Dinsley has been barred, you hear but little music or
laughter in this parish. For the common people it was a stern,
unplayful age. ‘Their gaily caparisoned lords might hunt from
manor to manor. The birds flew free in the sky. But they were
adscript: glaebae—bound to the soil—swinking and sweating that
they might live and that their masters might play. You may
follow them in ‘Tennyson’s well-known lines :-—
‘ The staring eye glazed o’er with sapless days,
The long mechanic pacings to and fro,
The set gray life and apathetic end.’
Even slaves, it is said, will have their saturnalia, and the priest
and the prepositus, if they are wise, will wink at them. But such
forbidden things must be kept secret and underground. The
rumour of them does not come up on any early record. Later
on, in the fifteenth century, it does. ‘1471. It is presented of
William Grubbe of Hitchin that he is a common player at dice
(lusor ad talos) and aids and abets divers riotous persons to play
at dice and other unlawful games (ala joca tllicita) in the cellars
of his house against the statutes therefor enacted. And the said
William is commanded henceforth not to play at the said unlawful
games under pain of 3s. 4d.’ (117).
But in earlier days, if the name of a Hitchin man appears on
the Rolls in connection with sports and pastimes, it means one
of two things. Either he has hindered his lord in the pursuit of
his pleasures, e.g. 1308, ‘ because he would not come to the driving
of the lords chase,’ and is therefore ‘in mercy,’ or he has been
promoted, out of his status, to be a keeper, huntsman or groom.
240 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Thus in 1325 John Huchyn had the honour to become Edward II’s
huntsman at the wage of 2d. a day, witha further $d. a day for
each greyhound under his charge. For comparison with that
we may cite the appointment as ‘ otter-hunter throughout the
realm ’ of Thomas Hardgrove, who in 1461 was given a charge on
Hitchin manor for his wage of ‘ 2d. daily for himself, 14d. daily
for a groom under him and #d. each for the puture (O.F. poture
= nourishment) of 2 greyhounds and ten running dogs ’ (114).
Under Edward II John Huchyn saw but little hunting, for
within two years of the appointment his master was himself run
to earth in the woods of Neath. But with Edward III he was
constantly at Hitchin. Indeed, the King had such good sport
here and was so well pleased with his lodgings in the town that
he addressed a Royal Warrant to the Barons of the Exchequer,
‘ordering that Luke le Vyntener of Hitchin and Alice his wife
should be excused all fines and taxes due to the King up to sixty
shillings in consideration of the hospitality he had received on
divers occasions ’ (i1) (Cal. Close Rolls 1330-3, 273).
With Huchyn, the King’s huntsman, came Beverle, the King’s
esquire, who in time became the King’s inseparable companion.
We have already noted the grant to him of the manor of Minsden
(above, p. 24). In 1368 there was a further mark of royal
favour: ‘ For services rendered freely by him, not without danger
of body and expense of substance, the King grants to John de
Beverle that he and his heirs male may hunt the hare in all the
King’s forests, chaces, parks and warrens, using and carrying a
parti-coloured horn, to wit of russet and black equally, which the
King has given him as a sign of such hunting, to be returned to
the King on failure of such heirs male; and in case the said horn
shall be stolen or lost, nevertheless that he may hunt as above.
1. In one of the historical notes of Francis Lucas 1n the author’s possession
(53) he suggests that this Luke le Vyntener may have been one of his ancestors.
Undoubtedly the forms ‘ Luke’ and ‘ Lucas’ are to be found side by side 1n
the Middle Ages, though Bardsley 1s inclined to give Lucas semority. Prers
Plowman, 3498—9, has this couplet:
‘And al that Marc hath y-maad
Mathew, Johan and Lucas.’
A. W. Tindall Lucas, who has worked for some years on the pedigree and
historical origins of the family (see 862) 1s of opinion that they are descended
from a John Lucas who 1n the late twelfth century was a citizen of Rouen.
The name Lucas 1s common in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, and
has been associated with the tribe of the Leuci, who dwelt between Paris and
the Rhine.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 241
The King moreover wills that if, in any of the said hunts, he shall
have a course or two at the King’s deer, or take or kill one or two
of the said deer, he shall not be impeached or molested on account
of the same. Furthermore, the King, lest he be hindered at all
from such game, exempts him from being put on assizes, juries,
inquisitions, from appointment as mayor, sheriff, escheator, tax
collector, receiver of wool, tenths or other subsidies, arrayer or
leader of men-at-arms, hobelers or archers, and from being
compelled to take the order of Knighthood against his will’
(P.R. 42 Edw. III, pt. IT, m. 8).
Six years later, “on account of the King’s special affection
for his person,’ comes a further favour. Hitherto Beverle in
his hunting has been limited to hares. Now ‘the said John is
licensed during his life to hunt stags, hinds, bucks and does,
roebucks and roes, deer and other wild beasts, and to fly all kinds
of falcons, to wit falcons-gentil and goshawks, and to fish and
fowl in all rivers, stanks (pools) and other waters. Furthermore,
he may take fuel, both of dry wood and underwood, whenever
he shall enter or pass through the said forests, chaces, parks and
warrens, sufficient for his stay there’ (P.R. 48 Edw. III, pt. 1,
m. I0).
II
By the close of the fourteenth century you find the common
people also taking leave and licence to exercise themselves. Other
Hitchin field names of this period—Morris Dell, Reel Piece,
Nine Corners, Clicketts Close, Pitcher Pightle, Cock Close,
Closh Close, Loggatts (iii)—show the pastimes favoured. You
may know the rest from the Statutes passed to suppress them,
for even in Edward III’s reign those in authority were complaining
that archery was almost totally laid aside in the pursuit of games
‘alike dishonourable, useless and unprofitable.” The later
Statutes, 12 Ric. II, c. 6, and 11 Hen. IV, c. 4, are more specific,
On Sundays and holydays all men strong and able of body were
to use their bows and arrows, ‘ and utterly leave playing at the
balls, as well hand-ball as foot-ball, and other games called
a1. A game much after the style of quoits, in which a stake is first fixed 1n
the ground, and then logs of wood or bones are thrown at it from a distance,
‘and he that 1s nearest wins’ In the graveyard scene (Act v, sc. 1) Hamlet
observes to Horatio: ‘ Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play
loggatts with them? mune ache to think on’t.’
VOL. II. Q
242 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
quoits, dice, bowling and kails and other such unthrifty games.’
In 1477 those ‘ newly-imagined games ’ called half-bowl, hand-in
and hand-out and queck-board, were declared to be ‘ ungracious
and incommendable ’ and forbidden (17 Edw. IV, c. 3). ‘ The
defense of this Lond standeth moch by Archers,’ and those of the
King’s lieges at Hitchin who refused to practise on Bowman’s
Close or Butts Close (iv) on Sundays and Feast-days ‘ as valyant
Englishmen ought to do ’ were made to suffer the pains and penal-
ties of the law. These penalties were increased in the time of
Henry VIII, for it was found that ‘ sundry new and crafty games,’
such as tennis, cards and shove-groat, were being played ‘ by
subtil inventative persons,’ and that the cross-bow, hand-gun,
hagbut or demi-hake were causing ‘ the good and laudable exercise
of the long bow ’ to be ‘ avoided and eschewed ’ (33 Hen. VIII,
c. 6 and 9).
It was natural that Henry VIII should insist on the revival
of archery, for, if the chronicler Hall is to be believed, ‘ he shotte
as stronge and as greate a lengthe as any of his garde.’ No
doubt the good people of Hitchin had the chance to marvel at
his prowess, for he was constantly in residence at Maydencroft,
a sub-manor of Hitchin, which he had inherited in 1509 from his
grandmother Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond. In the
State Papers one can trace His Majesty engaged in ‘ those most
princely and serious delights ’ of hunting and hawking all the day,
and at night sending a few shillings from his lodgings to the
Hitchin friars, or rewarding those who brought him oranges from
Hertford, or licensing Robert Dele ‘ to import 50 tuns of Gascon
wine, or playing cards with his kinsman, the Marquis of Exeter
(267. 1. 1042 and 5. 751).
But in 1523 and again in 1525 two untoward accidents befell
the King. ‘ On the 15th October in the fourteenth year,’ says
Hall, ‘ the Kyng lay at Hychen to see his Hawkes flye, and by
chance the Kyng’s lodgyng was on fyer and he in greate feare
but in no jeopardie ’ (v) (885. 1.275). One of our historians,
iv. The Butts on this close were set up under a Statute of 1465, and in 1541
were extended to the new statutory length of 220 yards (33 Hen. VIII, c. 9).
v. Itis interesting to think that Hall may have witnessed the King’s escape,
for he would appear to have kept a school at Hitchin about this time. Roger
Ascham, 1n his criticism of Hall’s Chromcle, writes depreciatingly of his style,
‘ wherein many sentences of one meaning be so clouted up together as though
Mr. Hall had bene not writing the Storie of England, but varying a sentence in
Hatching Schole.’
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MEDIEVAL TRIPTYCH BOWLS, DICE, SNOWBALLING
For sources see the List of Illustrations
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 243
though he gives no authority, asserts that the King was in the very
gravest jeopardy, and ‘ escaped with not so much as a shirt upon
his back ’ (53). Then in the latter end of 1525 we read that ‘ the
Kynge folowyng of his Hawke, lept over a diche beside Hychyn
with a polle, and the polle brake, so that if one Edmond Moody
a footman had not lepte into the water and lift up his head, which
was faste in the clay, he had been drowned; but God of his
goodnesse preserved him ’” (885. 2. 38). Some of our historians,
in recounting this episode, have sighed to think what a different
course the history of England would have taken if the Defender of
the Faith had been left to stick in the mud (50. 2. 47). But we
have no time for idle speculations. Whatever we may privately
wish, Henry lived on to divorce his wife and decree a judicial
separation between England and Rome; and, alas! he sold his
manor and came no more to Hitchin. Moody lived on to take his
reward of a groat per diem out of the Privy Purse. And the
River Hiz ran on just as muddily and unconcernedly as ever.
III
For a hundred years and more after Henry’s death this parish
was given over to Puritanism. Without descending to the depths
of austerity and gloom, it certainly bore a ‘ vinegar aspect.’
* Laughter,’ as that arch-puritan Prynne declared, ‘ is unseason-
able, because this is no place, no time, no world for Christians
to laugh or be merry in.’ It was not for those who sojourned in
this vale of tears to indulge in ‘ lewd and antichristian games.’
There were sterner things to do, for the soul of England was to
be saved, and Philip, the mighty Antichrist of Spain, was in God’s
name and by their own right hands to be put down from his seat.
Nevertheless, there was still a few left in Hitchin to pelt the
Puritans, and bait the bull and bear at Bull Corner (vi), and prac-
tise all those other follies and ‘ polished diversions ’ which Stubbes
pillories in his Anatomie of Abuses, 1583.
vi. When I first came to Hitchin, 1n 1901, the stake and the ring to which
these poor beasts were tied at the Bull House in Bridge Street still survived
In spite of many protests, this barbarous pastime, which 1ts supporters styled
‘a sweet and conifortable recreation,’ lingered on into the eighteenth century.
The latest reference to 1t 1n this county 1s 1776, 1n a ‘ Bill of the Expenses of
Benjamin Lawrence, one of the Chief Constables of the Hundred of Hertford,
in suppressing a bull-baiting at Hertingfordbury ’ (72. 2. 136). Mr. Ralph
Nevill reminds me that this so-called sport was not made illegal till ‘ Humanity ’
Martin got ‘ Martin’s Act’ passed in 1822.
2444 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
The more honest recreations of the period have been
catalogued in verse :—
‘'To throw the sledge,
To jump, or leap o’er ditch or hedge;
To wrastle, play at stoole ball, or to runne,
To pitch the barre, or to shoote of a gunne,
To play at loggets, nine holes, or ten pinnes
To try it out at football by the shinnes ” (883. 29).
There was a ‘ Foteballe close’ established at Hitchin in
Elizabethan days, but the rabble who favoured this ‘ bloody and
Murthering ’ game, as Stubbes describes it, preferred to play it
in the streets. Sir Thomas Elyot, who was the mirror of correct
demeanour, makes it plain that no gentleman’s son could play
* footeballe, wherein is nothing but beastlie furie and extreme
violence, whereof proceedeth hurt, and consequently rancour and
malice do remain with them that be wounded.’ He was undoubt-
edly right, for ‘ it was rather a friendlie kind of fyghte than a play
or recreation,’ and it seemed to grow less friendly as time went on.
As late as 1772 a writer, describing a great football match between
Gosmore and Hitchin, speaks of the ball being ‘ drowned for
a time in the Priory pond, then forced along Angel Street across
the Market place into the Artichoke beerhouse, and finally goaled
in the porch of St. Mary’s Church ’ (53).
Those who were neither Puritans nor turbulent plebeians
sought out quieter forms of pleasure. Sir Edward Radcliffe, who,
before he retired to Hitchin Priory, was King James the First’s
physician, occupied his leisure with primero and chess, though
his master had said of the latter: ‘ I think it over-fond, because
it is over-wise and philosophicke a folly.” Thomas Docwra,
steward of Hitchin Manor, amused himself with the ‘ gentle,
cleanly and most ingenious ’ game of billiards at the time when
it was played out of doors upon the green. Samuel Atkinson,
archeologically inclined, or perhaps impelled by filthy lucre, got
the King’s licence ‘ to practise his best arte, endeavours, labour
and industrie in digging for treasure trove supposed to be hid
or laide at St. Hippolitus near Hitchin’ (Cal. S.P.D., Vol. XCIV,
No. 31).
King James, both in his speeches and in his Book of Sports,
issued in 1618, expressed his eagerness ‘ for delighting the people
with public spectacles of honest games, as also for convening of
neighbours for entertaining friendship and heartliness by honest
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 245
feasting and merriness’ (Somers Tracts, 3. 270). But what
really mattered was the King’s sport, and when he came to live
near to us at Royston we knew in this parish, which was within
his * preserve’ of fourteen miles, how selfish and oppressive he
could be: ‘ Inasmuch as at our late coming into Royston and the
parts thereabout for our recreation we have found our game of
partridges and pheasants so decaied that the country thereabouts
could yield us no sport in that kind; now, knowing that our
well-affected subjects, one and all, will be so farre from the spoile
and destruction of our game, as they will with all dutifull readiness
further the increase thereof, with forbearance of their own delight
for our desport, as a speciall means for the preservation of our
health; and therefore, seeing that the said spoile and destruction
has been occasioned out of the insolence of audacious and irregular
persons, we resolve for the time to come to withstand and punish
such boldness and contempt’ (567. 104).
In 1604 a Hitchin man, Henry Half-hide, was appointed to
be Keeper of the King’s Game and supervisor of hawking of par-
tridges, herons, etc., in the district of Royston (Cal. S.P.D.
1603-1610, p. 114). In 1607 William Fryer was appointed to
preserve the King’s game within twelve miles of Hitchin and to
bring offenders before the King personally or before his Privy
Council (Cal. S.P.D. 1603-1610, p. 387). The inhabitants were
expected not only to forbear from their own sporting inclinations,
but to contribute to the keep of the King’s hawks and hounds,
and to that of his dogs, which were kept in the Charlton hamlet
of Hitchin at a farm still bearing the name of Dog-kennel Farm.
For many years they chafed over this imposition, until in King
Charles’s reign they flatly declined to pay. In 1630 the Hitchin
Justices told Andrew Pitcairn, Master of the King’s Hawks, that
they would no longer suffer a levy for the Royal birds. They
were willing to be called before the Council to answer for it, and
would prove that it was not due. Again, in 1635, they resolved
* to inform themselves of the antiquity of the commission now on
foot for the provision of oats, hay and straw for the King’s
hunting horses and dogs, and in what proportion the same have
from time to time been answered’ (72. 5. 202). This trifling
dispute about oats and hay and straw was but one out of a hundred
in the growing quarrel between the Stuarts and their ‘ well-
affected ’ subjects, which seven years later embroiled the kingdom
in Civil War.
246 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
IV
From 1642 to 1648 the voice of the sergeant was heard in the
land. There was no sound of cricket or stool-ball on the green.
That handgun, for which John Woodward of Hitchin had been
fined when he killed ‘ nine pigeons, settled upon a howell of
pease,’ was now wanted in the war. Nor even when Cromwell
pacified the realm do you find any sportsman daring to show his
head: ‘ 1656. Foreasmuch as His Highness the Lord Protector
of the Commonwealth hath taken special notice of the mischiefs,
and great disorders which daily happen and are committed in
Taverns, Innes and Alehouses . . . the Justices of this County
of Hertford are enjoined to take special care for the effectual
suppressing of all such alehouse-keepers as are, or shall be,
convicted of the prophanation of the Lord’s Day by receiving
into their houses any company, or of swearing, drunkenness,
suffering tippling, gaming, or playing at Tables, Billiard Table,
Shovel-board, Cards, Dice, Ninepins, Pigeon-holes, Trunks, or
of keeping Bowling Alley or Bowling Green or any of them, or
of any other games’ (383. 840). ‘There be delights,’ wrote
Milton, ‘ there be recreations and jolly pastimes that will fetch
the day about from sun to sun, and rock the tedious year as
in a delightfull dream.’ But for all that the Maypoles were not
set up again. They were ‘enticements to naughtiness.’ And
dancing, even morris-dancing, was forbidden: ‘ It is the Devil’s
procession. As many paces as man maketh in dancing, so many
paces doth he make to go to hell.’
Nor even at the Restoration do you find that abandonment
to the long-forbidden fruits of pleasure which might have been
expected. ‘True, the Maypole was set up again at the corner of
Angel Street (now Sun Street) and Bridge Street. But there was
not the same jollity about the young men and maidens who
demurely danced around it. In their prim Puritan dress they
looked old and serious beyond their years. And they were serious.
Were they not ‘ fallen from grace ’ and ‘ convicted of sin ’ as their
long-faced divines had said? How could they dance beneath
such a crushing load of guilt? Had not their own pastor Bunyan
confessed that ‘ this did benumb the sinews of my best delight, and
did imbitter my former pleasures to me’? (Grace Abounding, 21.)
And, besides, they were wicked. Look at the Maypole again
It is about midnight on Sunday, the 12th of September. It is
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 247
dark, but you can just make out the form of the Vicar of Hitchin
as he steals down Sun Street and nails this exposure to the pole:
* It was my fortune the other night to pass through the Regiments
of Death,’ by which he means the churchyard, ‘ wheare to my
greate Amazement I beheld an unexpected Object, hatefull to
every virtuous eye, and the more because it was comitted amongst
the Shady Emblems of Mortality. But what is it that the Ranting
Gallants of this age will not performe when to satiate theire unjust
desires they do not scruple to act the heinous crime of Fornication
even in the presence of God before his Sacred Temple, which
ought not to be polluted with the least of unchaste thoughts,
much lesse to the unjust and luxurious sinns of the Wicked.
For my parte I should have thought it as greate a Sinn in me if
I had concealed this Accion, and for this reason was resolved to
expose them, but with such Care and Modesty that only their
vice might appeare and not theire Names, for to brand them with
infamy would be irrevocable and leave a lasting degradation on
theire succeeding progeny. Noe (I call God to Witness) my
designe is only to admonishe them of theire future duty towards
God, it being my earnest desire that they would avoyd the like
Occasion of Reproofe and take warning before ’tis too late. For
there is an All-seeing God which will severly punish at the dread-
ful day of Judgment the Workers of Iniquity. ‘Then shall they not
escape, but receive open punishment for this and all their secret
sinns, unless they truelly and sincerely Repent and for the tyme
to come Resolve to lead a Godly and holy life without Spott or
Blemish, which God of his mercy grant through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen ’ (vii) (484. 185 v.).
Come now into the Market-place, and behold a man who
does lead a godly and holy life. You may almost tell him by the
uprightness of his walk. He is Edward Hurst, better known as
‘Holy Hurst of Hitchin,’ a Deacon of the Tilehouse Street
Baptist Church. As he enters the square some mountebanks
are exhibiting, and a fellow townsman runs up to him and begs
him to stop and see them. But Holy Hurst averts his head.
‘Turn away mine eyes,’ he murmurs, ‘ from beholding vanity ’
(383. 646). But there again was the trouble. There was vanity
vi. This paper was ‘ taken from thence by Jas. Lawrence the next Morne-
ing,’ but not before the scandal of 1t had spread throughout the parish. To
make the more sure of his accusation the Vicar copied it afresh and filed it
amongst the archidiaconal records, where 1t may be read to this day.
248 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
whichever way he turned. ‘ He that shuns trifles,’ said our poet
Chapman, ‘ must shun the world.’ If he fled from the square by
way of Cock Street, there were touts crying the odds on the game-
cocks as they fought in the meadow, and even in the parlour, of
the Cock. If he escaped by the Church path there was John Law
‘galloping his horses in the Churchyard in contempt of the
Ecclesiastical Constitutions and to the scandal, offence, and
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AN ACROBAT IN HITCHIN MARKET
pernicious example of the faithfull ones of Christ ’ (484. 222).
Bucklersbury was barred, for a crowd outside the Red Lion was
* having sporte galore in the way of a riatt.” And Angel Street
was thronged with a multitude of the unheavenly host swarming
out of the bowling-green, or from seeing the Siamese twins of
Mary Fisher of Gosmore on show for 14d. at the Sun.
V
In the eighteenth century you may observe an increasing
diversity of pastimes and an increasing latitude on the part of
Sher ‘seon7y janwes Aq sutured & woly
GuvVi MOOO FHL
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 249
those in authority. Football, however, was still under a cloud;
for in 1685 some Hitchin youths had been ‘ asked to play at
football, but that was not the business: ’twas to goe and be listed
for the Duke of Monmouth ’ (72. 1. 353). No one who went
through the bloody fight of Sedgemoor or the Bloody Assize of
Judge Jeffreys cared to play that game again. It was better to
stay at home and indulge ‘ those glorious manly pleasures of being
very drunk and very slovenly,’ which Wycherley noted as character-
istic of the age. ‘Those who could afford the five guineas’ sub-
scription—the Radcliffes, the Hales, the Spencers—joined the
Royston Club, which had been founded at the Restoration ‘ in
2 handsome rooms behind the Red Lion inn,’ loyally decorated
with portraits of the Stuart Kings, ‘ a good head of Dr. Savage (viii)
and over the chimney a Judgment of Paris.’ ‘ They settle all the
affairs of the county,’ writes Defoe in 1704, ‘ and carry all before
them, though they behave with something more modesty, or at
least closer than in former days. ‘They used to drink excessively
and do a thousand extravagant things ’ (10. 18. 358).
Those townsmen of Hitchin who had no guineas to waste
upon their pleasures managed, nevertheless, to get over to Royston
each September for the races. ‘There was more in it than racing,
for in the evening the Red Lion had ‘ its assemblies and cockings,’
and the main, or contest of fourteen cocks a side, between the
gentlemen of Cambs and Herts, frequently developed into a free
fight between the fighting men-cocks of those rival counties
(567. 163). In addition to the Royston races there were those on
Lilley Hoo. ‘ Here,’ writes Salmon in 1728, ‘ they make a four-
mile course of two rounds upon a good turf, but the turnings are
too short’ (10. 155). Sometimes the takings were too short.
‘1775. Information of Martha Lord that she had a booth upon
Lilley Hoo during the races, and on Wednesday she left the said
booth and delivered to her husband, John Lord, a pair of pockets
in which was a sum of 4os. and more. Information of Thomas
Dudley that he was in the booth all that evening and saw William
Wentworth and James Dean come in and ask for a glass of gin.
They then sat down to drink the beer they had brought with them
vin. Savage, ‘ the Aristippus of the age,’ was the first Chaplain of the Club,
and famous for his wit. In his younger days he had travelled to Rome and
elsewhere with James, the fifth Earl of Salisbury, who afterwards gave him the
wealthy living of Clothall. Ata levée he was asked by George I why, 1f he was
so long at Rome, he did not convert the Pope, to which he replied, ‘ Because,
sir, I had nothing better to offer him ’ (567. 161).
250 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
at a table on which was a lighted candle. One of them designedly
put out the candle by throwing it down, at which time the said
James Dean was sitting by the said John Lord, who was asleep.
About half an hour afterwards the said John Lord awoke, and
told the informant he had had his pocket picked of a double pocket
containing all the money his wife had taken that day ’ (72. 2. 132).
Here and there, however, especially amongst the Quakers,
you light upon those
‘Whose master-bias leans
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes.’
Sick of the endless brutality of sport, they were discovering how
delightful it was simply ‘ to take the air.” There is an old saying
that “ whosoever buys a house or land in Hertfordshire pays two
years’ purchase extraordinary for the goodness of the air.’ By
the eighteenth century the London physicians were prescribing
Hitchin as a health resort—‘ the English Montpellier,’ as Dr.
Fothergill described it—and were sending patients here to bathe
in the Charlton springs and roam on the Pegsdon Hills. If the
hardy natives needed an ulterior purpose to lure them out to walk,
well it was there in plenty. Dunnage speaks of the green lane
leading up to Preston: ‘ It affords a pleasant walk for the recreation
of persons resident in the town’ (28.8). But, apart from ‘ its
salubrious air, enchanting, extensive views and variety of shades,’
there was the chance always of a gossip about Bunyan with one
or another of the Foster brothers, or, when they were dead and
gone, one could march up and down the gazebo of Preston Castle
with Captain Hinde and listen to the old warrior fighting his
battles over and over again. If you sauntered out of the town in
the opposite direction, you stopped by the edge of Wilshere’s
farm ‘to admire the old willow tree bearing an oak, an ash,
a currant tree and a briar ’ (28. 312). Moreover, you could sit
very comfortably on one of its lower branches and watch the
town cricketers trying to slog sixes into the river.
William Evetts, who flourished here as a physician and anti-
quary about 1730, used, when his day’s work was done, to walk
out to the Danish Encampment,
* Where the quiet coloured end of evening smules
Miles and miles.’
But he would not allow himself to be blinded by the beauty of
gbgi ‘seon7y januieg Aq suluted eB UWlOl |
INANdANVONA HSINVGO IHL
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 251
the sunset. He kept his eyes open for those coins he loved to
collect. <A silver penny of Offa could often be picked up in the
fields, and had not a common labourer of Walsworth unearthed
a glorious specimen of Cymbeline (ix) attached to a horse-radish
root in his garden? On the great days when Dr. Ducarel,
1713-1785, the Lambeth librarian, came to stay, they would make
for the Six Hills and excavate and speculate. And so home to
Evetts’ little library in Bancroft to drink Madeira (x) and plan
a History of Hitchin (868).
Another of our antiquaries, Maurice Johnson (see above,
Vol. I, pp. 62-3), when he had finished collecting the Hitchin
Manor rents or tired of writing his Life and Writings of Fohn
Milton (where is that manuscript now ?), would exercise himself in
the Priory Park, where he had persuaded Sir Ralph Radcliffe
to revive the departed glories of archery. Samuel Scott, the
Hertford Quaker, who sojourned here so often for his health’s
sake, would pace gently up and down the higher and more secluded
pastures of the Park. Here is an extract from his Journal, dated
1st day sixth mo. 1784, ‘ Walking this evening in the meadows
near Hitchin town in great lowness of body and mind, these words
were immediately suggested, viz. Fesus, the fatrest of ten thousand.
A bare and lifeless remembrance of them only now remains; but
at the time the impression of them was so powerful as to produce
tears of contrition: a favour I had not experienced in my rural
retirements for many days’ (708. 105). The Radcliffes, if not
hunting, were to be found with the Lyttons, the Brands, the
Beckfords, the Hales and the Wilsheres, at a club known as the
Welwyn Club, which they had founded at the Swan in that
parish when the Royston Club had ceased to be. Its minute-
books, which are now in my possession, show that a change had
come over the boisterous behaviour of the country squires.
Instead of the ‘ excessive drinking and the thousand extravagances ”
which Defoe had satirized, you have it ‘ resolved that at 8 o’clock
any member may be at liberty to call for tea and cards.’ A book
club is established in 1796. ‘The members are all for peace.
‘1800. The 5th day of June Mr. Collison bets Mr. ‘Townsend
ix. Obverse: helmeted head, legend Cunobelnm: Reverse: a sow, legend
Tasciovamt (972).
x. Ducarel was a great judge of wine, and used to say that he never knew
a@ man till he had drunk a bottle with him __ Evetts always ordered through him
‘ Let the Madeira,’ he writes, ‘ be of the strongest sort and good against the
gout ” (868).
252 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
a doz. Port wine that Peace takes place on or before Xmas day
next, the wine to be furnished at the ensuing Club. At same time
Kortwright bets Croke a haunch of buck Venison (xi) in due
season that Peace takes place within same space of time. And it
is Resolved by the Club that, at the meeting following the event of
peace, we the parties of this day, inviting all our brethren to join
us, do furnish a festival on that happy occasion ’ (869).
VI
‘Cards and Tea.’ All the long winter afternoons and nights
—cribbage, piquet and whist. Sometimes on Sundays, too, even
with strict-going Quakers; or, at least, an apologetic compromise
of whist and Bible-study. Amongst the Lucas papers (711)
there is a fascinating pack of playing-cards in which the books of
Genesis, Exodus, Samuel and Kings are made to serve for the four
suits, whilst the court-cards are embellished and made tolerably
innocent with drawings of Scripture scenes, with mock-elucidatory
couplets scribbled underneath. For example, there is the murder
of Abel, in which Cain is depicted as a hairy cave-man brandishing
a club:
‘The card before you on the table
Is Cain a-pitching into Abel.’
There is another of the Flood, with the animals going two by two
into the Ark, and Noah’s flag flapping in the hurricane of rain:
‘ Walk up, ladies and gents, the ark will sail
To-morrow morning early without fail.’
In another you may discern young David harping before the
King, whilst Saul sits gloomily upon his throne, fingering his
bow and arrow:
* David’s vocal performance doesn’t suit him,
And consequently Saul attempts to shoot him.’
There is the harrowing scene at Endor:
xi. It was a long-established custom on the part of the Hitchin tenants of
Trinity College, Cambridge, to send their landlords a haunch of buck venison
every Michaelmas. ‘ And on the renewal of their leases,’ as the great Dr.
Bentley remarked, ‘ I believe they have been no losers by 1t.’
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 253
“In undress uniform Saul went one day
To Endor, but he wished he’d stayed away.
Into futurity he had a peep,
And Samuel’s ghost struck him all of a heap.’
And there is the last sad scene of all in the bloody Battle of Gilboa:
‘ Saul finds his party regularly floored,
To save himself he falls upon his sword.’
In writing of an increasing latitude on the part of the
authorities in the eighteenth century, I was referring mainly to
the clergy. But one must make an exception of Francis Bragge,
vicar from 1689-1728. In pulpit and out of pulpit he was always
quoting Scripture against the pleasures of the young: ‘I said of
laughter, It is mad, and of mirth, What doeth it?’ ‘ What a
Cruel Damp,’ he remarks in a sermon on the Regulation of the
Passions, ‘ will it be, in the Midst of all his Delights, to think that
for all this God will one day bring him to Judgment. This will
Embitter everything and the poor unhappy creature will have
nothing but a meer Out-side of Felicity with Gall and Wormwood
within.’ Evidently he was the pattern priest of a pattern bishop;
for, according to Swift, Thomas Tenison, then Bishop of Lincoln,
was ‘a very dull man who had a horror of anything like levity
in the clergy, especially of whist.’ So had Holy Hurst of Hitchin
who, being invited to play cards, replied by sending a copy of the
resolution passed in 1711 at the Assembly of the General Baptists:
‘that playing at Cards and Earnestly Contending for the same in
Christian famelys is unbecoming and Unlawfull for such as profess
the Gospell of Christ and Unfitts them for Church Communion ’”
(xii).
Fortunately for the parish the Rev. Mark Hildesley, vicar from
1731-1755, was quite human. He knew well enough that men
cannot live by sermons alone. There is need of cakes and ale,
‘ And such kind helps
To laugh down time and meet age merrily.’
xu. The Baptists were very clear and outspoken about the vanity and pride
of life. Here is another of their considered opinions on the moot point ‘ whether
it was expedient for Christians to go a Fox-Hunting.’ ‘1790. It1s not of good
report, is a waste of precious time, 1s expense 111 applyed, frequently exposes
the person to temptation, will lay a stumbling-block in the way of enquiring
souls, 1s a gratification of Carnal nature, nor will it be for the glory of God,
and cannot be done without injuring the property of others. Consequently it
is the duty of every Christian to refrain from :t.’
254 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
When the boys whom he tutored in the room over the south
porch climbed up the tower after jackdaws’ nests, or dropped
pebbles down the pipes of the organ, he would not always chide.
He was a friend of honest fooling, and had a wholesome liking
for feats of dexterity and strength (xiii). All that he hated was
the corruption of filthy lucre, ‘ the springes to catch woodcocks,’
which were defiling the pure founts of English sport. When that
promising lad, Luke Wilding, left him in 1750 for the howling
wilderness of London, he put into his hand a precautionary little
book, published three years before, on The Tricks of the Town
laid open, or a companion for Country Gentlemen, wherein ts con-
tained the Humorous Frauds, Tricks and Cheats of Tennts-Courts,
Bowling Greens, Play-houses, Gaming-houses, Cock-matches and
Horse-races.’
The Rev. Pilkington Morgan, who succeeded Hildesley, was
even more indulgent, because as a sportsman he needed indulgence
on his own account. It was for his own use that he bought Jones’s
celebrated work on The Art of Skittling and sent for a practical
guide to bowls,so that when Dr. Young (of the Night Thoughts)
came over from Welwyn for his Turnpike meetings at the Sun
he might associate with him afterwards on the bowling-green of
that inn and put up something of a game. Still more indulgent
was a later vicar, Henry Wiles, who allowed his two boys to amuse
themselves on week-day mornings by trundling their hoops up
and down the central aisle of the nave. But they were good boys,
for when their father came to read matins in the empty church
they would stand like two aureoled cherubs on either side of him
until the benediction, and so again to their play.
But let us leave the clergy and glance at the indulgence which
the parish as a whole claimed for itself on election days, coronation
days and May Days. Here, for example, is Ralph Radcliffe’s
account of the election of 1734: ‘ Both sides of Hitchin Hill were
crowded with Rabble as we drove in our coach for Hertford.
They threw dirt and stones and other nastiness and broke the
windows everywhere.’ A special Sessions was held the next day
to punish the rioters. And here is William Lucas’s account of
xii. He used to tell a good story about his assistant priest, the Rev. Stephen
Godly, who lies buried beneath a table-tomb on the north side of St. Mary’s.
Once upon a time Godly went over to preach at Pirton, ‘ and being a very corpu-
lent and strong man and finding the pulpit door too narrow for him, he pulled
it down with a panel of the pulpit at one effort, and preached on in the remaining
part.
A HITCHIN POLITICIAN
From a sketch by Samuel Lucas
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 255
the proclamation of King George IV in this royal manor.
‘1820. 22 February. The King was proclaimed in this town
being market day by William Wilshere as Deputy Sheriff, attended
by several of our townsmen on horseback. The rabble were
very rude in throwing snowballs at him’ (24). Here, again, is
the election of 1841. Samuel Lucas writes to his wife: ‘ The quiet
town of Hitchin has lost its character this week. We have been
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all bustle, and the last two days uproar, music, bell-ringing. A
Tory band has been parading the streets incessantly, followed by
all the rabble of Hollow Lane and Back Street. We have had to
endure the exultations of the victorious party. After an ill-
conducted struggle Alston has been defeated by a majority up
to last night of 630. Never was a contest more unequal. Before
Alston had started, committees of Landlords, Gentry and Clergy
were formed in every district, and they had canvassed nearly
256 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
every voter within their influence. The lame, the paralytic, the
aged were brought up from every quarter ’ (711).
Thirteen years later he describes an even more scandalous
election: ‘ The Polling, which became more riotous as the day
drew on, closed at 5 o’clock and the mob, irritated by the manner
of Thomas Gorham Pierson and Dan Hawkins, attacked the Blues
at the Sun, and then ensued a fearful scene: breaking heads and
windows and great scuffling which lasted with but little interrup-
tion for an hour or more. The Town is now becoming quiet
again. The Public Houses only are full of company ’ (711).
The Hustings, it may be added, were erected in the Market
Square, down by the Sun Street end. You went up three steps
on to a platform, declared your vote, and came down the other
side, being kissed on one cheek by the Tory agent and smitten
on the other by the Whig—or wice versa. On the last occasion
that the Hustings were used, in 1868, there was such a violent
commotion in the square that the head constable was driven to
his last resource; but it was one that had never failed him in his
need. He accordingly offered Steppy Thrussell and Blacksmith
Westwood a small purse to start a fight at the north end of the
square. ‘The populace, seeing them at it, stopped rioting, and
flocked in their direction. Then by slow steps, as they had been
prompted, the pugilists fought their way along Cock Street, and
up Pound Lane into Butts Close, where amidst a large crowd they
fought it out to a finish. An amusing variation of the Pied Piper
of Hamlin’s device to draw the vermin out of the town.
VII
Compared with these uproars, the May Day revels must have
seemed almost respectable, for they were performed under the
sobering influence of a long and honourable tradition. You may
follow them in the admirable account said to have been written
by Louisa Hinde of Bancroft, Hitchin, which William Hone
afterwards printed with an illustration in his Every-day Book,
tr. 565-6. ‘Soon after three o’clock in the morning a large
party of the town-people, and neighbouring labourers, parade the
town singing the Mayers’ Song. ‘They carry in their hands large
branches of May, and they affix a branch either upon, or at the
side of, the doors of nearly every respectable house in the town-
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 257
where there are knockers they place these branches within the
handles; that which was put into our knocker was so large that
the servant could not open the door until the gardener came and
took it out. The larger the branch is that is placed at the door
the more honourable to the house, or rather to the servants of
the house. If, in the course of the year, a servant has given offence
to any of the Mayers, then, instead of a branch of May, a branch
of elder, with a bunch of nettles, is affixed to her door; this is
meas,
& CaAl!|'s ¥
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THE HITCHIN MAYERS
considered a great disgrace, and the unfortunate subject of it
is exposed to the jeers of her rivals. On May morning, therefore,
the girls look with some anxiety for their May-branch and rise
very early to ascertain their good or ill fortune. ‘The houses are
all thus decorated by four o’clock in the morning. ‘Throughout
the day parties of these Mayers are seen dancing and frolicking
in various parts of the town. ‘The group that I saw to-day, which
VOL. II. R
258 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
remained in Bancroft for more than an hour, was composed as
follows: First came two men with their faces blacked, one of them
with a birch broom in his hand and a large artificial hump on his
back; the other dressed as a woman, all in rags and tatters, with
a large straw bonnet on, and carrying a ladle; these are called
*“mad Moll and her husband ”’?; next came two men, one most
fantastically dressed with ribbons and a large variety of gaudy-
coloured silk handkerchiefs tied round his arms from the shoulders
to the wrists and down his thighs and legs to the ankles ; he carried
a drawn sword in his hand; leaning upon his arm was a youth
dressed as a fine lady, in white muslin, and profusely bedecked
from top to toe with gay ribbons: these, I understood, were called
the ‘‘ Lord and Lady ” of the company. After them followed
six or seven couples more, attired much in the same style as the
lord and lady, only the men were without swords. When this
group received a satisfactory contribution at any house the music
struck up from a violin, clarionet, and fife, accompanied by the
long drum, and they began the merry dance, and very well they
danced, I assure you ; the men-women looked and footed it so much
like real women that I stood in great doubt as to which sex they
belonged to, till Mrs. J(eeves) assured me that women were not
permitted to mingle in these sports. When the circle of spectators
became so contracted as to interrupt the dancers, then mad
Moll’s husband went to work with his broom, and swept the
road dust all round the circle into the faces of the crowd,
and when any pretended affronts were offered to his wife, he
pursued the offenders, broom in hand; if he could not over-
take them, whether they were males or females, he flung his
broom at them. ‘These flights and pursuits caused an abundance
of merriment.’
“I saw another company of Mayers in Sun Street, and, as
far as I could judge from where I stood, it appeared to be of
exactly the same description as that above mentioned, but I did
not venture very near them, for I perceived mad Moll’s husband
exercising his broom so briskly upon the flying crowd, that I kept
at a respectful distance.’
‘The “‘ Mayers’ Song ”’ is a composition of great antiquity,
and I was therefore very desirous to procure a copy of it. This,
I found, however, more difficult to accomplish than I had antici-
pated, but I at length succeeded in obtaining it from one of the
Mayers. The following is a literal transcript of it :-—
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 259
MAYERS’ SONG.
righizousness, Cr else ure Aze wm Serr
Remember us poor Mayers all,
And thus do we begin
To lead our lives in righteousness,
Or else we die 1m sin.
We have been rambling all this night,
And almost all this day;
And now returned back again,
We have brought you a branch of May.
A branch of May we have brought you
And at your door it stands;
It 1s but a sprout, but 1t’s well budded out,
By the work of our Lord’s hands.
‘The hedges and trees they are so green,
As green as any leek;
Our Heavenly Father He watereth them
With His Heavenly dew so sweet.
‘The Heavenly gates are open wide,
Our paths are beaten plain;
And 1f a man be not too far gone,
He may return again.
The hfe of man 1s but a span,
It flourishes lke a flower,
We are here to-day, and gone to-morrow,
And we are dead in an hour.
The moon shines bright and the stars give a light,
A little before it is day,
So God bless you all, both great and small,
And send you a joyful May.
260 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
In another part of the Every-day Book (vol. ii, 1174) Hone
prints some local information supplied by John Brand, the
antiquary. ‘It was formerly,’ he says, ‘the custom at Hitchin
for each farmer to drive furiously home with the last load of his
corn, while the people ran after him with bowls full of water in
order to throw on it, and this usage was accompanied with great
shouting ’ (xiv). A little while, however, and that custom was
lost to sight in the harvest suppers, when bowls, full of something
stronger than water, were tossed not upon the corn, but down the
throats of the reapers. You may see the modest beginnings of
these suppers in the Day Book of fohn Ransom, 1810-1815, where
the provision for each year in ‘ flour, plumbs, currants, bread,
cheese, cold meat and potatoes’ is faithfully set down (871).
But by the sixties they had become respectable social functions,
at any rate amongst the Quaker farmers, who never countenanced
the use of beer. ‘ At night,’ writes Mary Sewell on August 31,
1866, ‘I attended Alfred Ransom’s Harvest home. It was a
successful evening. A comfortable tea; speeches and singing,
conducted by Mr. Horsfield; buns and syllabub about 9.30; the
company, about 150 with servants and guests, dispersed before
11 o'clock ’ (773).
Vill
Not even by Victoria’s day, however, had the leaven of the
Quakers leavened the whole lump. The old English buffoonery
was always breaking in. In Hitchin Portman the townsmen began
to deport themselves respectably even in their pleasures, but
those in the ‘ Forreign,’ as it was still called, remained outlandish
and low-minded. Every August they would have their drunken
scuffles with those imported ‘ spalpeen ’ harvesters at Ransom’s
and Hailey’s and Baron’s; and there was venom in the fighting
because these Irish curs not only underlived but overworked the
English working man. Every Sunday they assembled for their
own saturnalia in cart-sheds or coppices beyond the Constable’s
xiv. Mrs. Sale of Hinxworth Place told me in 1912 that this custom was
still beng observed 1n her parish. It was at one time universal. Upon every
farm there resided a corn spirit, which at harvest tame was driven from field to
field until 1t was cut down with the final swathe of the scythe. ‘The labourer
attired in the last sheaf, or carting 1t to the stack, was regarded for the time
being as the embodiment of the sp:rit of fertility, and, 1n order to ensure a good
crop for the following year, 1t was essential that he should be watered. See
Frazer’s Sptrtts of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 133-147.
THE THREE TUNS, TILEHOUSE STREET
From a photograph by T. W. Latchmore, 1900
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 261
beat; and sometimes these sons of Belial swarmed into the town
itself to break the Sabbath peace of those assembled in God’s
name. Once, through the open window of the Tilehouse Street
Chapel and into the midst of the congregation, there came
hurtling a sheep’s head. ‘ There’s turnips to follow,’ prophesied
an unknown and ungodly voice. As the brethren rushed out,
‘ buzzing,’ so the perpetrator afterwards described, ‘ like a hive
of angry bees,’ he cleared off to the bottom of the hill and hid
himself in a corn-bin at the Three Tuns till the hunt went by.
‘ Otherwise,’ he added, ‘I should have been ‘“‘ dipped ”’ for a
Baptist in the Priory Horse-pond.’
They had their haunts within the township also. Hardly a
week passed but the Red Hart, or the Artichoke, or the Highlander
would have its ‘ tuppenny gaff,’ with Maria Martin or the Murder
in the Red Barn as a never-failing draw. In 1805, when they were
playing The Way to Get Married, the stage at the Swan collapsed
and a Mrs. Jeeves was killed (24). For those whose taste went
higher there was Lacy’s company of comedians at the Sun,
1790-1825, and occasionally a sight of Harriet Mellon (xv).
And sportsmen could always find a pigeon-shooting match with
its sweepstake in progress at the Swan (xvi). But there was
really no need to pay good money at a tavern. ‘The streets were
full of strolling players. Everyone in that age of eccentrics was
a likely comedian or clown. ‘There was amusement everywhere.
For the most part it took the form of practical joking. Virtuous
citizens, going home to their wives, would be kidnapped in the
dark and deposited in the pound. Shopkeepers, opening their
shutters of a morning, would be amazed to see that their swing-
sign had been exchanged for another. And no one seemed to
xv. ‘In the service of Friend Hagger of Dicker Mill, Hertford,’ writes a
correspondent to the Herts Mercury of December 20, 1902, *‘ was a maid named
Harriet Mellon. It was arranged for her to enter the household of another
Quaker miller, John Ransom of Hitchin, and one Saturday she mounted pullion
behind her new master and travelled thus to his house 1n Bancroft. This John
Ransom was a portly man, with large wig and dark-brown top-boots. He was
usually seen on horseback, and was 1n that position said to much resemble “‘ the
old king.’”? After a time Harriet joined a troupe of stage-players visiting
Hitchin, and ere long became a noted actress, and finally the wife of the great
banker Thomas Coutts.” These particulars of the actress’s life are difficult to
reconcile with some printed accounts of her career; but the writer was evidently
well informed.
xvi. These were frequented by the gentry, too, and Frederick Peter Delmé
Radcliffe, who, after a four days’ contest, had won the All-England stakes, was
often to be seen shooting at the Swan.
262 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
mind. The young Latchmores used to take their pleasure in
pea-shooting through the open window of David Paddon’s school,
aiming to hit the round target of baldness on the back of the
pedagogue’s head. But Paddon went on teaching. It certainly
would not have helped him to complain to George Lewin, the
constable, for Lewin did much the same. It used to be told of
that jocular, easygoing man that he would sit of a Tuesday by
his bakehouse window in Cock Street, open it just a little, and
let fly with his pea-shooter at the farmers passing by. Another
whim of his pre-constable days was to try his catapult at Hengest
and Horsa, as he called them, on the roof of the Brotherhood
A STROLLING PLAYER
House. They took some hitting, especially at night, for then
they were supposed to ride along the ridge tiles, backwards and
forwards, as hard as they could go (xvii).
Meantime, in the fields round Hitchin Frederick Peter Delmé-
Radcliffe was riding as hard as he could go. ‘That is saying a good
deal, for he was one of the best men across country that England
has produced; and so much more than that, for, as Bulwer Lytton
said, he was ‘ a country gentleman able to hold his own in every
xvii. Elizabeth Moore, a sober, God-fearing woman, used to speak of
seeing them ride in this fashion, as though it were the most natural] thing in
the world.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 263
field of sport and no less qualified to take his seat in the cabinet
of the statesman or the closet of the scholar’ (Ralph Nevill,
English Country House Life, pp. 167-8). Fired with his example,
the Hitchin people abandoned some of their eccentricities and
took to manlier forms of recreation. ‘There had, of course, been
hunting here long before Radcliffe’s day. We still boast the
THE BROTHERHOOD HOUSE RIDGE TILE
horns of a stag that was killed in St. Mary’s churchyard in 1753.
But not until Radcliffe formed his harriers in 1832, and became
Master of the Hertfordshire Foxhounds in 1834, could anyone
gain a familiar acquaintance with the Noble Science. ‘I have
been engaged at the office till 4 o’clock and am proportionately
2644 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
stupid,’ writes William Wilshere, our solicitor M.P., in October
1833. But Radcliffe was soon there to rout him out. ‘I begin
fox-hunting next week,’ he writes a fortnight later, ‘and have
been out several times with Radcliffe. He has solicited me and
Prime (xviii) into having a coat. I am sure my horses will all
shy at it.” He was out again on the famous Wendover run,
March 17, 1837: ‘ a day of unexampled severity,’ when Radcliffe
led ‘the most extraordinary run upon record in the annals of
Herts.’ ‘Twenty-six miles done, ‘racing pace some of it,’ in
two hours and twenty-five minutes. The hounds ‘carried a
Xviii. Charles Prime, a great friend of Frederick Peter Delmé-Radcliffe.
He hived at the Hermitage. On Sunday mornings after service the two of
them used to stay behind in the chancel and fix the meets for the ensuing week
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SPORTS AND PASTIMES 265
beautiful head throughout the day,’ and only one was missing,
but of the field all but six were ‘ beaten out of sight,’ and three
horses were killed.
The tingling autumn air, the health and eagerness of men and
horses and dogs, the ringing woods, the speed, the confusion,
the torrent of the hunt as it ‘smokes along the vale,’ the sleek
fox with his shining brush, flying through thick and thin—you
can see it all and hear and scent it still in those hunting diaries
which Radcliffe kept for over fifty years (875).
It was Radcliffe again who put life into the game of cricket,
which Hitchin men had been playing after a desultory fashion
on Butts Close ever since archery had ceased to be. Before his
day one had heard of single-wicket matches, arranged for a goodly
wager, and matches between the different crafts and guilds,
e.g. Carpenters v. Plumbers, Tanners v. Cordwainers, and even
Constables v. Citizens of Hitchin town (xix). Men still spoke
with awe of John Hall, who with beaver hat on head had kept
up his wicket against Ware for two solid summer days; of Long
Amos and Joe Gatward, who could smite sixes into the standing
corn beside the Bedford Road; of Isaac Spencer, who had intro-
duced to these parts the high mystery of the round-arm delivery ;
of John Lines, who could stand in a bushel and throw the ball
over a hundred yards. Radcliffe gathered this scattered talent
into a side, gave it his racing colours, and in 1866 provided a
spacious ground, close to his mansion on Hitchin Hill, where, in
spite of its aristocratic seclusion and the loss of its Cricketers’
Inn, the Club flourished until 1925, producing no first-class
players (xx), but sportsmen famous in their day and generation
like Captain Lautour, Cecil Reid, the Earl of Strathmore,
George Hughes [i.e. Tom Brown], F. A. Wright, Charles Loftus
Barham, Thomas Harwood Darton, H. G. S. Hughes, Jack
Hughes, W. O. Vizard, William Wilson (pro.), Fred Coxall,
W. H. English, F. R. Shillitoe (Secretary and Treasurer for
thirty years), Sid. Brown (pro.), E. L. Wright, Harry Williams
and R. C. Grellet.
xix. In one celebrated match the townsmen notched 362 runs and the
constabulary 10.
xx. A good many minor county matches have been played here. In the
Herts v. Essex match of June 27, 1877, V. A. Titchmarsh obtained 15 wickets,
including all ten in the first innings In the match against Sussex two years
later he secured the 10 wickets for 45 runs. In the match against Sussex in
1880 Charles Pigg took all ten Northamptonshire wickets for 13.
266 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Football, too, was beginning to turn respectable and settle
down. Rescued from the streets in the early Georgian days, it
was adopted by the Free School boys and played with rules, lines
and goals in Paynes Park. In 1819 there was an attempt to deprive
the scholars of their ground, whereupon a meeting was called and
Charles Baron, who had been a trustee of the school for seventy
years (surely a record service), and Daniel Chapman, who had
been trustee for sixty, and Timothy Bristow, who had been
trustee for fifty-two years, all declared that the game had been
played on that field for as long as they remembered. Neverthe-
less, they did not retain their ground, nor their monopoly of the
game. In 1865 the Hitchin Football Club was formed under the
captaincy of Francis Shillitoe (xxi). In 1875 the Hitchin Cycling
Club was founded by the Hon. Ion Keith Falconer and Arthur
Latchmore. A Tennis Club was founded by William Lucas in
1880, a Hockey Club by William Lucas in 1890 (xxii), and a Golf
Club by the same all-round sportsman in 1898 (xxiii).
IX
This passion for sport seems to have affected all classes of
society. Even amongst the Protestant Dissenters you can in
the nineteenth century observe a certain relenting. ‘There was
still hardly a game their scruples would let them play, but
stealthily and circumspectly they were beginning to enjoy them-
selves. When Joseph J. Lister visited William Lucas in 1818
xxi. They used to play at Dog Kennel Farm, Charlton; the Old Etonzans,
Old Harrovians and Wanderers being annual opponents. In 1872, along with
fourteen other Clubs, they instituted the English Football Association Cup
Competition, beating Crystal Palace and losing to the R.E. in the semi-final.
xxu. But hockey of a sort was played on the field opposite Wratten much
earlier by members and friends of the Lucas family. I have heard 1t said that
William Lucas, always very particular about the proprieties of any game he
played, used to hold his hockey stick in one hand and a copy of the rules, ready
for instant quotation, 1n the other.
xxui. This Club, precariously established on Butts Close, could not hope
to flourish, and it did not. What with roads and railings, courting couples and
cows, nursemaids and perambulators, the hazards proved too many. ‘The
worst scolding I ever had was from a woman 1n the Bedford Road, whose bed-
room window I had smashed with a slightly erratic drive. JI asked for my
ball and offered compensation; but she loudly refused to compound such
a felony, and used language which even I, though a hardened golfer, had not
heard before.
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SPORTS AND PASTIMES 267
he was exhorted to bring ‘ Thor’s Hammer’ with him, so that the
two geologists might go exploring the Hitchin pits and quarries
together. On another occasion Lucas took his guest to New-
market to see that celebrated racehorse Leviathan, which Emilius
Delmé-Radcliffe had purchased for His Majesty. ‘It is sup-
posed,” said The Times of January 12, 1828, ‘ to be the largest and
most superb-looking blood horse ever produced in this or any
other country.’ On another occasion, in 1837, Lucas hurried
out of the town to see ‘ Green the Aeronaut, having ascended in
his great balloon from Vauxhall Gardens, land safely over the
heads of a wondering crowd near Offley Holes.’
Some went farther afield in pursuit of pleasure. In 1812
two Hitchin Quakers, Joshua Ransom and Richard Day, ‘ per-
formed’ a Pedestrian Tour through some of the more Romantic
Parts of Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire and Scotland.
Their account of it, ‘inscribed with pleasing and grateful
retrospect to Helvellyn, Skiddaw and the Sister Lakes,’ is written
in a style of splendid diction. ‘They speak of ‘ sacred gloom and
silence of sequestered vale, and scenes so sad they half entomb
the soul.” But this may be explained by their having sojourned
with the poet Southey ‘ by the lake side at Buttermere.’ Twenty-
two years later they were followed by William Lucas the younger
and his brother Samuel. But their diction is not splendid.
“Quakers sometimes swear,’ breaks out William in his Fournal,
“and I am sure I could have done so once or twice today. Here
we are, rain, rain, rain; no books and wanting to get to Lodore
by bedtime but afraid to start, in a regular fit of the blues. This
dirty inn and the semi-barbarous, half-licked villagers, the pigs,
dogs and everything by this time thoroughly known to us and
divested of all interest. No trout to be caught and no sketches
to be taken; in a room not big enough to whip a cat in, with a
dismally ludicrous picture of the Siege of Seringapatam hanging
over the fireplace; heartily sick of Rosthwaite, the very beauties
of which the wet has washed out. Often we talk longingly of
Hitchin, and vow to quit the lakes as soon as possible.’ Clearly
their luck was out, for they were disappointed also in their hope
of seeing Wordswerth. ‘They paced up and down in front of his
house, but the poet failed to appear. ‘They gossiped, however,
with the natives. ‘ Wordsworth seems well known to all the
Grassmere and Ambleside peasants. ‘They say he is a good old
gentleman who often stops to talk to them but makes most dismal
268 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
noises occasionally, sighing, groaning, “‘ scawping ”’ (xxiv) and
humming as he walks along. His failing sight obliges him to
wear a shade over his eyes.’
‘We talked longingly of Hitchin.” Yes, these ‘ pedestrious
tours ’ were all very well, but there was no place like home. He
was a dull creature who could not be happy there. Think of the
hundred and one additional ways there were of being amused—
and most of them quite innocent. The Natural History Club.
‘ My chief delight,’ said William Dawson, ‘ is gathering moss in
a gentle rain.” The Essay Society, where the choicer spirits
displayed their genteel accomplishments in prose and verse.
The Spelling Bees, where sometimes even Senior Wrangler
MISS DUDLEY RYDER ROWING THE REV. J F. AND MISS STUART ON
OUGHTON HEAD
Hensley would go down to the bottom. The Acrostic Club, which
that ingenious spirit, Lawson Thompson, ran (879). Bowling
on the Sun bowling-green, where under the rules of the Club,
re-formed in 1860, no wagers could be staked, but rewards in the
nature of meerschaum pipes or coloured waistcoats were allotted
to those who won the most games in the year. Boating on
Oughton Head, and, peradventure, further, for had not two
intrepid watermen, Francis Shillitoe and William Hill, in their
Ruby and Wanderer canoes worked their way by river from
xxiv. A word not to be found 1n the Dialect Dictionary, I think 1t signifies
‘ beating the air’ with the hands as if in time to the measure of the verse.
It 18 a trick that many poets have in the crisis of composition. Whenever the
divine afflatus descended upon Wordsworth the neighbourhood soon knew of
it. ‘ Auld Willum Wordsworth has broke loose again,’ the rustics used to say.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 269
Hitchin down to Yarmouth? (880). And Croquet, that most
Victorian of games. ‘ Yesterday,’ writes Samuel Lucas on the
4th of April, 1862, ‘ the vernal weather brought our young folks
into the garden at their game of Crockey, and I was tempted to
join them for a few games. ... This newly invented game
suits persons of every age. ‘The exercise is gentle, and as
some little deliberation and Skill are necessary young folks do
not always win.’
To some non-conforming Nonconformists these amusements
seemed too mild. They wanted something with more kick and
devil in it; something upon, if not over, the border-line of per-
mitted recreation. ‘The leading Independent hazarded his soul
in Opera Houses and in London theatres: ‘ 1838. January 19.
Saw Kean in Hamlet. On the whole a good performance. 'Too
much ranting occasionally, but when subdued very good.’ He
wasted his substance in whist: ‘ 1838. August 28. Dined at
Priory. Played infamously at whist and lost 8s. 6d.’ And he
attended race-meetings: ‘ 1838. July 11. At the races. Pocket
picked to the extent of {10.’ So did many of those young sparks
who were rising up, after being so long damped down, in the
stricter Quaker households. ‘ My uncle prayed after breakfast,’
notes Mary Sewell in her diary under the 16 May, 1866, * particu-
arly for his children, this being Derby Day.’ ‘Two days later she
enters with evident relief: ‘ Ralph and Edwin returned safely
from the Derby’ (773). John Gatward, the leading Baptist,
was not quite so daring, but he developed an unholy passion
for angling. For a time he kept his guilty secret to himself and,
lest he should lead the weaker brethren astray, he visited his
favourite streams like Nicodemus at night. If he wanted a whole
day’s angling he would ‘ drive out on business,’ with a barometer
stuck out prominently in the gig to be returned duly rectified to
a country customer. But the barometer was usually seen to
come back at night along with Gatward’s fishing-rod and catch.
One by one the last flickers of eccentricity die, and in this
world of organized sport we shall not look upon their like again.
There is Sam Marsom, and the Brothers Ansell puffing and blow-
ing after their greyhounds along the Bedford Road. The poor hare,
270 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
at its wits’ end, flies for refuge through Nancy Albon’s open
door. She, like a good housewife, deftly snares him in her
apron, and with her tongue, sharper than a two-edged sword,
keeps the whole pack of them at bay.
Now look upon that noisy mob of people on the other side
of the parish, surging after Arthur Lewin of Charlton Mill, who
with a half-sack of flour on his back is running for a wager against
Edwin Tooley, who staggers on with his eldest son upon his
back. Now lift up your eyes to Highbury, on whose happy
fields, so soon to be covered with bricks and mortar, Charles
Kingsley and Arthur Lines are engaged in a scything match.
Each is provided with a ‘ second’ to sharpen his spare scythe.
There is no end of a dispute about it, for Lines manages to finish
first only by scamping his work, whereas Kingsley all through
maintains a close and honest swathe.
Down in Cock Street you may observe another warm dispute.
It seems that Herbert Crawley, a butcher of enormous girth, has
thrown out this challenge to another tradesman who is a noted
sprinter: ‘ Give me five yards start in twenty-five, and let me
choose my own course, and I’ll run you for a guinea.’ ‘ Done
with you,’ says the sprinter, for he knows he can give Crawley
half the distance any day and beat him hollow. Whereupon
Crawley, with a knowing air, waddles into Cock Street, places
himself five yards up the narrow passage known as Quakers Alley
and shouts over his shoulder, ‘ Now we start.’ Under such
conditions the issue is never in doubt. The sprinter has no
possible chance to sprint, for the shoulders and sirloin of the
butcher fill up the alley. Itis, as the spectators say, a ‘ walk-over.’
Disputes there will be even in walking-matches. Look for
a moment at the athletic sports held every year upon the cricket
field. What a gathering of great men! S. F. Edge, afterwards
the racing motorist, 1s there; Holbein, afterwards the Channel
swimmer; and F. W. Shorland, all on their high cycles, with Dan
Albon riding the new low-type, equal-wheeled machine which
he is introducing to these parts. But look rather at that profes-
sional pedestrian who, having been disqualified, is making a scene
upon the track. From words it comes to blows. He walks up
to the referee and strikes him in the face, after which he leaves
the field, not by any means at a walking pace, with judges, Com-
mittee men, policemen, fellow competitors and reporters in hot
and furious chase.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 271
These goings-on, which to us appear unseemly and eccentric,
were not eccentric then. They might happen, and they did
happen, any day. What our grandfathers thought to be really
eccentric was the goings-on at the college (on its migration to
Cambridge, later known as Girton College), which in 1869 had
its humble beginning at Benslow in this parish. From time
immemorial the women of this old-fashioned town had been
taught to keep their place. It was sufficient that they should
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HITCHIN SPINSTER AT HER SPINET
‘learn all partes and sortes of good housewifrie and spinstering.’
If any finishing was thought needful for young gentlewomen, well,
there could be no harm in teaching them to recite the poems of
Mrs. Hemans, or to work samplers and fine embroidery; if more
was needed, they could tinkle the melodies of Balfe on the piano,
press flowers in albums, and dabble in water-colours. Strange
that this benighted parish should have been singled out by those
educational pioneers who had resolved to enfranchise the women
of the future from all this ‘ spinstery.” Seebohm and ‘Tuke and
272 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Ransom understood. And so did the novelist George Eliot:
“I am cheered,’ she writes, ‘ by hearing that the beginning at
Hitchin looks so happy and promising. I care so much about
individual happiness that I think it is a great thing to work for
only to make half a dozen lives rather better than they otherwise
might be ”’ (993. 227). But most Hitchin people were horrified
at this futile expenditure upon the female mind. They heard
that Seeley of Ecce Homo fame was brought to the college to lecture
on Lycidas, and Dr. Hort on Acts, and James Bryce on Greek
History; whilst Senior Wrangler Moulton (afterwards Lord
Moulton) ‘ poured forth an amazing illumination on elementary
mathematics.’ How much better it would be, they said in the
town, if all this money were given to the poor!
But astonishment gave place to scandal when it was whispered
that these blue-stockings were pioneers in sport and pastimes, too.
In the most revolutionary way they were presuming to ‘ play fives
and cricket in the garden,’ and were clamouring to their principal,
Emily Davies, to be allowed to play football, too (993. 225).
As if that were not bad enough, they went on ‘ to play Shakespeare
in male attire,’ though George Eliot, being consulted by the
distracted principal, ‘expressed her disapproval ’ (993. 241-3).
Altogether it was a blessed relief when this colony of wanton
and eccentric women removed to a higher sphere, and allowed
this parish to sink back into its respectable and sober ways.
XI
Not quite sober or respectable, however. Even in the
sixties there were a few left to remind us of the old traditions.
One thinks of Craft, the town-crier, always hoarse and thirsty,
always ready for a beer-drinking contest at any tavern in the
town. One thinks of that spirited Quakeress who challenged
the vicar’s daughter to a duel of ‘ eating doughnuts,’ and con-
fessed afterwards to Dr. Oswald Foster that she had bolted
fourteen and yet had been a loser. One thinks of that other
eminent Quaker who confessed to me in his ninetieth year, when
he was on his death-bed, that he had exhibited himself on an
elephant and had ridden round and round the market-place with
a top-hat on his head.
One sighs to think how many whimsical and pleasant things
have passed for ever out of our parish life. Where are the
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 273
* treacle-suckers ’ of old Susan Honeybone so irresistibly dis-
played? Where is Phoebe Dawborne, ‘the pretty Muffin girl,’
with her basket and her bell? Where is Joe Tansley, who was
once to be seen sitting in his yellow cart, blowing like Triton
his wreathed horn, and chanting the eulogy of deceased mackerel ?
Where is Tommy Chamberlain, with his stall of cakes and
CRAFT, THE TOWN-CRIER
sweets? Where is the Flint bun, and where is the Logsdon
cheesecake (xxv)? Where is Whitehead, tailor by day and post-
man by night, who would stand by the Sailor Boy at Walsworth
and blow his horn as a signal to those who had letters for the
xxv. I used as a boy to bicycle eight miles into Hitchin for the joy of feasting
on these cheesecakes They were beyond praise, and almost beyond descrip-
tion. It was an amazement to me how the pastry, lhght and flaky as falling
snow, could ever hold together. As for the curd within, a generous inch and
a half in depth, 1t was delicious To eat 1t as an epicure should, solemnly and
with due reverence, was like going slowly through Paradise.
VOL. II. s
2744 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
post to bring them up to him (xxvi)? Where are Lance Wright
and Noel Wright, sons of Anak both, who would run down the
wicket to meet the fastest ball and send it towering over the
cricket-field trees? Where is T. B. Latchmore, who once held
the Ackworth school skipping-rope for John Bright to skip?
Where is Thomas Langdale Paternoster, manager of Pierson and
Crabb’s Bank, who used for the entertainment of the parish ‘ to
get out sometimes on the roof of the Bank wearing a Mask on
his face and performing strange anticks ’ (966)? Where is John
Newton, the schoolmaster, who, when lecturing one day in the
Assembly Rooms at the Sun on The Movement of the Heavenly
Bodies, illustrated his theme so vigorously that he lost his balance
and came with his apparatus to the ground? Where is Inspector
Young, whose stentorian ‘ Right away to London!’ could almost
be heard at King’s Cross? Where is George Jackson, who
used to bandy words so glibly with his bidders and hand his
snuff-box with such an eighteenth-century air to the chief buyers
in the cattle market? Where ...? But, alas! you can hear the
answer in the auctioneer’s own words: ‘ Going—going—gone.’
It is a quiet backwater of life which the historian must inhabit
if he is to listen intently to the voices of the past. ‘The alarums
and excursions of the noisy world must not intrude. And yet,
even to a recluse, how alluring, how full of strange meaning,
are the pleasures of the present. In an age bent on attaining
the greatest idleness of the greatest number, what a diversity
of new pleasures are invented to amuse that idleness! No single
chapter could contain them now. And do you mark how in
these new pleasures it is speed that is held to be the one thing
needful? ‘The natural expression, you will say, of man’s glory
in his own inventive powers. But it goes deeper than that.
Unless one mistakes, it is a sign of his own delirtum and dis-
quietude of soul. A century ago, when men were more assured
about a future existence and pleasures still to come, they could
dance to slow measures and take life easily. ‘The crumbling of
that assurance is making itself felt. La vie n’est qu’un amusement
en attendant la mort. A bitter saying that has rung like a knell
into the doubting hearts of men, and caused them to consider
xxvi. In his later years, when the 100,000 mules which he said he had walked
on his Walsworth, Willian and Letchworth round had shortened his wind, he
blew a whistle instead. When he could no longer whistle the G.P.O. installed
a pillar-box.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES 275
their latter end, and turn again, with an ever-increasing abandon-
ment, to wring the last ounce of happiness out of this mortal life.
And now men dance, not like King David of old to the glory
of God, but to keep the Devil and all dark thoughts at bay. Let
the music play, louder and louder. Take hands and swing out
into the full tide of the dance, till the senses reel and every care
is drowned. ...
Dead-tired and disillusioned, they come out of their stifling
halls, and it is day. How exquisite is the dew on ‘ the opening
eyelids of the morn.’ The birds sing divinely in the Bancroft
gardens. The sun rises superbly over Windmill Hill. Perhaps
that boisterous optimist of a poet was right after all. At any
rate, on such a morning, be God in His heaven or be He not,
‘ all’s right with the world.’
JOSEPH SHARPLES SKATING
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (i)
‘ The World, my Dear, hath not such a contempt for Roguery as you
tmagine.’—Peachum, 1n The Beggar’s Opera, Act I, Scene I.
I
se: N the Introduction to this work a con-
wa trast was drawn between the sober and
godly life of this Quaker town, ‘ in whose
Yawi streets respectability stalks on unchecked,’
~ and the dissolute, ungodly life of that
ya} unregenerate, pre-Quaker Hitchin whose
q grag memory has sunk into oblivion and per-
Pp: wad) dition. ‘The author, as if weary of an age
Wweeee ‘without one redeeming vice,’ spoke of
“the temptation of making the earlier
record more lurid than it was. He was maliciously inclined to
show what a worldly life this unworldly community had led,
what centuries this peaceful town had spent in breaking the
peace. The time has now come to make that contrast good.
To us sedentary writers, and to the still more sedentary
readers, with our bleached and bloodless minds, there is always
something attractive about the white-hot passions of men as
expressed in a calendar of crime. We may have neither the daring
nor the devilry of our fathers, but at a safe distance we like to
follow their exploits, and we feel a family pride in their ‘ enor-
mious and exhorbitant offences.’ As if ashamed of our clean,
incompetent hands, we like to think that in our ‘ flaming and
canicular days’ we, too, might have committed, not those little
sins and shabby peccadilloes to which our age is addicted, but
something more akin to their splendida peccata, their stark and
staring crimes. They have about them that air of ‘ pleasant
atrocity ’ which FitzGerald admired in the pages of Tacitus,
and, being long passed away, they can be remembered without
dishonour.
There is another pleasure, and a more honest one perhaps.
i. I have to thank Professor W. S. Holdsworth, K.C., D.C.L., author of
A History of Englhsh Law in g vols., 1903-1926, for reading this chapter in
manuscript and for making many valuable suggestions for its smprovement.
Also Sir Charles Longmore, K C.B., Clerk of the Peace, for subjecting this
chapter to a second revision.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 277
It is that which a student of history experiences as he handles
the indictments and the depositions of these evil-doers. As if
for the first time, he seems to touch the burning issues of life.
‘ Our history,’ complains G. K. Chesterton, ‘ is stiff with official
documents, public or private, which tell us nothing of the thing
itself.” ‘ Most of the doings and misdoings of the nations,’
laments H. G. Wells, ‘ lie flat and colourless now in the histories
like dead flowers in an old book.’ But in personal crime there is
often a preserving salt of humour and plain, vernacular speech.
From these Ancient Indictments, these Assize and Quarter
Session Rolls, there rises a clamour of voices that is clearly
distinguishable across the centuries. The men and the women
have at one another in such a fashion that the intervening years
are thin as a paper wall. Every word rings out sharp and clear.
Of a sudden one is made free of the real old world which had
seemed so impenetrable, whilst behind the record there spreads
the English country-side with its cottages and castles and wooded
lanes, arched by the same sky that covers us.
It has been said that crime is a bad glass through which to
view civilization, and in a sense that is true. ‘To take the Crown
division of an Eyre Roll or a Roll of Coroner’s Inquests, and
attempt to extract from it a view of medieval society as a whole,
would certainly be dangerous. Criminal records, in the nature
of things, deal with one aspect of life only, and that an unpleasant
one. Yet the dangers arising from their use may be exaggerated.
We must not assume when we read of deeds of violence that
there were no peaceful and honest persons in the towns and
villages of England; but it is quite certain that no view of
medieval life can hope to be complete which does not pay con-
siderable attention to the deeds of malefactors (908). It is
needful to know the hurly-burly as well as the humdrum of
history, the scoundrels as well as the saints; for, as another
writer has reminded us, ‘sin, in some shape or other, is the
great staple of history and the sole subject of law, and we must
expect both from the historian and the legislator to hear of its
outcome in human affairs’ (S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages,
p. 58).
II
In this parish of Hitchin the outcome has been considerable.
It is true that, as tenants of the Ancient Demesne of the Crown,
28 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
we were, in early days, not bound to attend the Hundred moot
or the county court. We were not assessed with the rest for
Danegeld or common amercements or the murder fine. We
were exempted from the jurisdiction of the sheriff and did not
serve on juries and assizes before the King’s justices. But it is
clear from the records that we kept our own courts busy, and,
however privileged as a class we were, we seem to have behaved
just as badly as ordinary peccable mortals.
The general impression produced by these records is one of
a highly picturesque insecurity of life, under the meshes of a
very intricate system of law and order. It is a life more high-
pitched and violent than our own. In a moment, in the twink-
ling of an eye, the ordinary affairs of everyday existence are
liable to be transformed into unnecessary and sordid tragedies.
A good citizen of Hitchin ‘ coming in God’s peace from St.
Andrew’s church towards the Angell inn,’ ‘a girl keeping watch
over some sheep on Highover Hull,’ an archer ‘ shooting against
another for a wager in Butts Close,’ a woman ‘ drawing water
from Caps Well ’—all meet with sudden death, dishonour or
disaster. It is a mad world, my masters. ‘There are too many
runagates, ‘ cooling their hearts,’ after the medieval phrase, with
an occasional murder or two; there are too many ‘ idle, young,
green-headed and ill-nurtured persons’ breaking one another’s
heads in too-frequent riots; there are too many women at war
with women of their street or ward, viragoes passing in a moment,
a verbis ad verbera, from words to blows. One knows all the
time that honest things like wool and corn and oil are being
bought and sold in Hitchin market; that the steward is busy
collecting his dues; that the priest of St. Andrew’s is kneeling
at his altar. But the quiet habit of life, the social order and
decorum are obscured by wicked men and women ‘ cursing one
another to eternity,’ acting ‘full Judasly’’ to the humble and
meek, flourishing like green bay-trees in their short career, and
dying at last like dogs, ‘ without shrift or howsell or con-
tricion ” (ii).
After studying the records of this period, one is left with
the unpleasant conviction that a large proportion of these
ii. Professor Holdsworth observes: ‘ For the sake of students you should
add a reference to the Bills in Eyre, which reinforce your conclusions as to
the characteristics of life 1n the thirteenth century.’ See Select Bills un Eyre
(Selden Society) and Holdsworth’s A History of English Law, ii, 336-9.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 279
criminals escaped unpunished. If, for example, you study the
Hertfordshire Gaol Delivery Rolls for 1324 you will find that of
the 285 prisoners only 43 were brought in guilty, and that of the
Hitchin prisoners every one was acquitted. Is it a mere coin-
cidence? William Parys, John Ster and John le Pek are charged
with having burgled the house of Edmund Poltat, and with
having stolen linen and woollen cloths to the value of 10s.; John
Faber [smith] is indicted for having feloniously killed Thomas
de Castre in the hamlet of Langley; William Welde and John
Campe for plundering Richard Hunte of his brass vessels and
other goods; Peter le Couper for having stolen two sheep of
Peter le Reeve; William Campe for having received seven bushels
of malt of the value of 4s., knowing them to have been stolen;
Geoffrey le Gaillour [gaoler] for furtively carrying away certain
brass vessels of Peter le Reeve at Walsworth (iii); John Durlad
for having stolen a horse. One after another each and every
felon comes forward and ‘says that in nothing is he guilty.’
One after another each juryman says the same. ‘ Therefore he
may go hence quit ’ (891. 22, m. 9g, 11 and 11d).
The meshes of medieval law seem intricate enough; but
evidently to those who knew the ropes it was quite simple to
break through. By cunning, connivance or by force of arms
the law could easily be made an ass; and many criminals who
should have swung lived on to commit crimes another day.
In criminal as in civil proceedings too often the case ‘ ended
as it was friended.’ ‘ Handy-dandy ’ was the proverbial expres-
sion for a covert bribe, and the perversion of justice is reflected
in the Latin jingle: ‘Jus sine jure datur st nummus in aure
loquatur.’
Perhaps one could not expect much from the sort of officers
who then dispensed the law. In 1287, for example, the township
of Hitchin chose for its bailiff one Vincent, who for lack of
evidence had been acquitted of murdering Robert the English-
man (890. 328. m. 24). At the next Assizes some exception was
taken to so scandalous an appointment; but it does not seem to
have been cancelled. In 1287 Vincent’s successor was arraigned
for having taken four shillings to let a felon out of his custody,
in. Peter was evidently a most unpopular reeve. In the following year,
1325, his house was broken into again by John the Miller and John Geraud,
who carried away a brass pot, a bushel of corn, a quantity of oaten flour [far:znam
aven], and a gammon of bacon (891. 22 m. 8). Altogether the records show
seven ‘ plunderings ’ of his house at Hitchin.
280 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
and was put in custody in his stead. In 1278 Richard, the
lying clerk of Walter of Essex, told Nicholas the Red of Hitchin
that there was an indictment out against him for murdering
Walter Lyning, but that his master, by virtue of his office, could
save Nicholas’s skin 1f it were made worth his while. Where-
upon the terrified Nicholas made over the then great sum of
40s., ‘ that he might aid him at Newgate,’ only to find later on
that he had been grossly deceived (890. 320. m. 50).
III
If the minions of the law proved incorruptible one resorted
to intimidation. It was not a fine art like bribery, but it served
its turn; for 1t was one thing to set the law 1n motion and quite
another thing to keep 1t moving; the least obstruction would
bring ittoastop. With ‘ outlandish ’ or foreign people especially,
intimidation was thought fair play. Why should they have the
protection and the privilege of English law? In the thirty-fourth
year of Henry II, 1187, Isaac Judaeus de Hich invoked the law
against a Christian who had done him wrong. One waits for
him to follow up his plea. But something happened. Year
after year the sheriff renders an account of one mark against
the Jew, ‘quia non est prosecutus’; year after year he has to
report on a deficit to the King’s treasury: sed non invenitur. In
the fourth year of Richard I he 1s still ‘ not to be found ’ (Pipe
Roll Soc., vol. 38, p. 37; vol. 40. pp. 26 and 169). So it fared
as late as the fifteenth year of Edward IV with a Scotsman
who endeavoured to assert his rights. Huis life was made so
wretched for him by the good people of Hitchin that he had to
go to London at great expense and procure a ‘ mandate to the
town bailiff to permit John Wynshelys, a Scotchman dwelling
in Hitchin, to inhabit the realm peacefully and enjoy his goods ’
(889. 15 Edw. IV, Pt. 1, m. 11d).
But even with Englishmen, and even with the King’s Justices,
intimidation was widely practised. In the year 1350, for example,
John Legat of Hitchin, ‘lately appointed to keep the peace in
the county of Hertford,’ was driven to take proceedings against
certain who had ‘ disseised him of his free tenement.’ There-
upon ‘ these same persons with others, not having respect to his
being a keeper of the King’s peace and so his lieutenant,
seditiously killed him at Hitchin as he was on his way to Hertford
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 281
to prosecute his Assize before his fellow Justices, and they go
about in that county and elsewhere to kill or injure the Justices
and the King’s lieges put by the sheriff on the panel of that
Assize to know the truth therein, and others who had indicted
them of the felony, extorting many sums of money from the
indictors, and doing daily many other damages, felonies and
crimes ’ (889. 24. Edw. III, Pt. 2, m. 16d) (iv). That is a grim
view of English social life in the year of anarchy that followed
the Black Death, but even in normal times there is evidence in
plenty of the ‘scorn and affront of those in authority,’ and
presentments of such desperadoes ‘as prize all their puissance
and lordship at one clove of garlic.’
If the bailiff could not be bribed and the Justice could not
be waylaid and slain, the evil-doer had to adopt other means of
defence. And fortunately the choice was wide. If he had
any sort of influence in the parish, he could cover up the traces
of his crime, and get the victim’s body ‘ buried without view of
coroner.’ Over and over again the town of Hitchin 1s ‘ in mercy ’
on this account: ‘1278. Unknown malefactors killed Roger of
Bayford and William his son in “‘ forinseca”’ [foreign part] of
the vill of Hiche and fled at once, and it is not known who was
the first finder, and three neighbours came and are not male-
factors. And Hugh de Bayford, one of the neighbours, did not
come, and was attached by William Norman and Hugh de Cruce,
therefore in mercy. And Roger and William de Bayford were
buried without view of coroner by Geoffry de Bayford, and by
the four neighbouring vills, Pyrton, Offele, Dinesle and Hiche.
Therefore in mercy. And it 1s testified that Geoffry died and
because Hugh is poor he is pardoned ’ (890. 323. m. 47d).
If, for some reason or other, the body could not be put away,
if 1ts blood cried aloud to heaven for vengeance, the murderer
took to his heels and made for sanctuary (v). So long as he
iv. This 1s no solitary case. One could cite instances all over England,
especially 1n country districts, to show a simular collapse of the administration
of justice. In 1463 the Cambridge Sessions were broken up by a band of
roughs who threatened to smite off the heads of those empanelled to try them.
At a village n Kent the vicar announced with a loud voice from the pulpit
that 1f any sheriff or any other officer of the King came to the town he would
ring the great bell, and at the sound of 1t the people were to assault and slay
the officer (906).
v. For a full exposition of the law of Sanctuary and Abjuration see Andre
Reville’s paper on ‘ Abyuratio Regn,’ Revue Historique, vol. 50, 1-42, 1892,
and Holdsworth’s A History of Engksh Law, u1. 303-7.
282 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
clung to the altar of his mother church he was tolerably safe,
though there were those who in hot blood would even profane
the House of God. In 1324 William de Hicche had to answer
as surety for Richard Andrew, who had pursued one John
Gloppard into a place of sanctuary ‘ and struck him in the belly
just under the navel, with a knife called Thwytel (vi), making a
wound five inches deep of which he immediately died ’ (Cal. of
Coroners Rolls of the City of London, R. R. Sharpe, p. 105).
Again, in 1425, Ralph Clifton of Hichyn, being suspected of
homicide, was pursued into the Priory of Huntingdon and
arrested there by Richard Leder, ‘ bailiff of the Lord the King.’
The fugitive had mistakenly supposed that any religious house
could afford him sanctuary (891. 219).
At the best the protection of sanctuary availed only for a
season, and then the culprit must needs abjure the realm and
make his way with all speed to the nearest port, to be for the rest
of his days an outcast, a wanderer upon the face of the earth.
Sometimes even the abjuration could be evaded. In the sixth
year of Edward I, Elyas de Cruce Roesia [Royston] and William
le Messager de Keninton ‘ put themselves through fear within
the church of Hitchin.’ After some parley with their pursuers
they agreed to leave St. Andrew’s ‘ and go by the King’s peace.’
There was evidently some misunderstanding about the terms of
their departure. ‘You have abjured the realm,’ said their
pursuers. ‘ Not so,’ argued Elyas and William, ‘ we went spon-
taneously and voluntarily without any impediment from the
said church, and are still in the country and in no way male-
factors.” And they argued to such purpose that the twelve
jurors, empanelled to decide the issue, gave the verdict in their
favour (890. 323. m. 50).
As a rule, however, the sons of iniquity found it safer to
brazen it out in the Court. With the jury a mere body of
partisan witnesses, with neighbours always willing to perjure
themselves for a gallon of ale, with the twelve confederates styled
compurgators (vii) skilfully discharging their function of false-
vi. ‘ Thwytel’: an Anglo-Saxon word for kmfe. It was in use until the
sixteenth century at least. Chaucer,in the Reeve’s Tale, 3933, describing the
Miller of Trumpington, says: ‘ A scheffeld thwitel bar he 1n his hose.’
vu. ‘ When one shall wage his Law, he shall bring with him vi, vii or x1
of his neighbours to sweare with him, much like unto the oath which they make
in the Civill Law to purge others of any crime laid against them, which are
called compurgators ’ (Termes de la Ley, 1641, 195). Professor Holdsworth
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 283
hood on oath, it is not surprising that the trial usually ended
in the prisoner’s acquittal. The Court was nearly as safe as
the sanctuary. If the worst came to the worst, one could always
wriggle out of the extreme penalty by pleading benefit of clergy.
It was better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands
of men; and it was a poor fool who did not take the precaution
to learn off his ‘ neck-verse ’ before he came into Court. Those
rustics who could not do even so much were quite prepared to
swing. One has the impression that to them life was a game of
adventure, with some frolic in it as well as hard knocks. One
had to take the rough with the smooth. ‘The loser was expected
to pay according to the rules without squealing.
IV
With these preliminary observations on the course of justice
in medieval Hitchin we may begin to pick and choose our way
through its calendar of crime. Of the earliest and perhaps the
bloodiest period of all not much has survived. A merciful
oblivion covers it from our prying eyes. It is, as historians are
wont to say, ‘ before the memory of man.’ In the chapter on
the manor (supra, Vol. I, pp. 29-37) something has been written
of the evil that was wrought by the Baliols, and especially by
Hugh de Baliol, who was the consiliarius iniquissimus, the most
wicked adviser, of the most wicked of our Kings. But no cry
comes across the centuries from those who rotted in his dungeons.
No word from those Hitchin bondmen who raised their brown
and horny hands and cursed the cruel Castle of Deneslai, whose
walls scowled upon them from above. The evil that they did
and the evil that they suffered have not been chronicled. The
world was not their friend, nor was the world’s law. It was a
great age for the powerful and rich; but for the humble and
meek it was a time ‘ when God and his Saints slept.’
So far as Hertfordshire is concerned the Assize Rolls are
not extant before 1177, and even so you have to hunt a long
while before finding any record of this parish. But if you read
them in conjunction with the Patent Rolls you can get many a
writes: ‘Compurgators were more concerned with civil than with criminal
cases, and were not listened to when the Crown was a party.’ By Blackstone’s
day compurgation was ‘ out of use,’ but not ‘out of force.’ It was finally
abolished in 1833. See Holdsworth, op ctt.,1. 305-8.
284 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
glimpse of the disorderly condition of these parts. ‘Twice in the
year 1265 are the officers of the Hitchin Hundred, and the officers
of the county in general, admonished ‘ to repress the insolence
of those malefactors who disturb the peace and with horses and
arms commit depredations and homicides by day and night’
(889. 50 Hen. III, m. 38d). In the Assize Rolls one is vouch-
safed a more particular account. The descriptions of the eight
murders committed here in 1278 are given in some detail, e.g.
‘Unknown malefactors met John le Despencer as he was coming
from the market of Hicce and slew him and fled. Robert de
Halden, one of the neighbours, did not come but is not a male-
factor. The vills of Watton, Welewe, Monfichet, Dickenswell
do not come fully to enquire. Therefore in mercy ’ (890. 323.
m.39d). In the same Roll (m. 50) Robert de Neddeler [maker
of needles] and John le Mouner [miller] are indicted ‘ for having
frequently exchanged good and entire pence with Jews to be
clipped for clipped pence.’ One of those who ‘ stand ’ for Robert
le Neddeler bears the interesting Biblical name of Simon the
‘Tanner.
Proceeding to the Roll for 1287 one finds Nicholas de Hicch,
a monk, murdering William de Biwell in the Hitchin fields
(890. 328.m.9d). The jurors certify that the monk has no
chattels and is not in their tithing, quia clericus. 'They have
also to certify the death of William Stuburn, who died by his
own hand [gratis se ipsum suspendit|, and so forfeited his chattels,
worth 44s., to the Crown (890. 328.m.5). They testify further
that John, the son of Robert the Brown of Hitchin, along with
four other malefactors unknown, waylaid John the Faber, who
was driving with Alice, his wife,in a certain cart upon the Offley
road. ‘ The aforesaid John they bound and the aforesaid Alice
they killed, and immediately afterwards fled. And John acknow-
ledges himself a malefactor and is banished out of the realm ’
(890. 328. m. 6).
V
In addition to the Assize Rolls there are the Gaol Delivery
Rolls, whose membranes, though full of matter, are not so
frequently consulted by the student. I will cite three cases
from these Rolls. It is the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle in
the year 1333. Walter Fox of ‘ Hiche ’ and his boon companions,
John le Hunt and Thomas Pouchard, are at Hatfield on their
inoqe OJ YIg 0} paingiy Sunurwd woly
EVO FER AVY RE 2 TF
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 285
way back from market at St. Albans. There, by a lucky chance,
they are able to steal and get away with two horses value 20s.
and an ox and a cow of the same worth. These they drive
before them to the house of William atte dane at Codicote, and
suggest that he should buy them. He has a shrewd notion
how they came by what they are so eager to sell, and he knows
the risk of a receiver. A hard bargain is struck. He doles out
the paltry sum of twelve shillings to be divided amongst them.
They then proceed on their way.
At Maydencrouch [Maydencroft], within the parish of Hitchin,
they espy John atte felde and other hirelings [mercenarios], also
“coming from the market of St. Albans.’ Mild, defenceless
creatures they appear, unlikely to put up any fight. One glance
is enough to persuade Fox and his desperadoes to fall upon this
easy prey and plunder them of a ‘ short blue courtepye [cloak]
value 18d. and of 4s. in money.’ They would have taken more
but for Philip Copman, who, for all that he was only a hireling,
showed an unexpected spirit. In the end he was overcome and
killed, as Christina his wife alleged, in her very arms, ‘ tnter
brachia sua.’ ‘Thereupon the murderers flee. A hue and cry
is raised. Hunt and Pouchard get clear, but Fox is hunted over
hill and dale, and at last, after a long run, is ‘ taken at Windrugge.’
Brought back to Hitchin, he is indicted before Richard de Norton,
coroner. ‘ And afterwards on the Sunday came Christina, who
was the wife of the said Philip Copman and accused the said
Walter of the death of her husband feloniously killed in her
arms, and she found pledges before the coroner for the prose-
cuting of her appeal, viz. Hugh Rommer and Robert Copman.
And immediately afterwards the said Walter Fox acknowledged
himself to be a robber and that he did feloniously kill the said
Philip.” Before he is hanged, however, Fox gives his con-
federates away. He claims as ‘ approver’ a full inquiry [totam
inqutsitionem]. ‘The sheriff is ‘ ordered to cause as many and
such ” [tot et tal] as have knowledge of the matter to appear at
the next gaol delivery. Pouchard and Hunt and William atte
dane are taken in hiding and ‘ mainperned’ [bound over] for
the next Assizes. At the trial Hunt ‘ says he is not guilty and
puts himself upon the country ’ [asks for a jury]; but, unfortu-
nately for him, the jury say ‘he is guilty. ‘Therefore he 1s to
be hanged. No goods.’ As for Pouchard and William atte dane,
their fate does not appear upon the record. For the sake of the
286 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
good citizens of Hitchin one may hope that these culprits also
got what they deserved (891. No. 214).
Here, more briefly stated, is the second case. It is again
the feast of St. Andrew, at that time the patron saint of Hitchin
Church. It is 1381, the year of the Peasants’ Revolt, a year
when no man’s life or property was safe. Enter Simon Irissh,
formerly servant of William Legat of Preston, into the dwelling
house of John Maundeville of Hicchen. Here also it is a
courtepye that is ‘ plundered,’ but one worth as much as three
shillings. Over-elated with his success, Simon goes to break
into the farmhouse of Lambert Legat of Kingswalden, and carries
off ‘ a ploucheyne with an iron collar.’ This time his Irish luck
is out. The Hitchin bailiff, John Walcote, catches him as he
comes away with the plough-chain in his hand. The law 1s set
in motion. On the feast of St. Ambrose, the sheriff of Hertford,
Edward de Benstede, holds his ‘ turn.” Four men ‘ appear for
the town of Hicchen.” On the feast of St. Margaret the Virgin,
Robert Belknapp and Henry Asty hold their Assize. On the
morrow of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, exit Simon Irissh,
who, in plainer words, is hanged (891. 216. m. 233).
The third case we will cite is also of that wild and lawless
year. Here we may quote the very words of the Roll, for they
are short and to the point: © John Everard, taken by an indictment
before Robert fitz-Geffery, one of the coroners of the lord the
King, of this that on the Wednesday next after the feast of
Saint Luke in the fifth year of the reign of King Richard II
the same John and John Lacy strove together at Hicchen and
the said John Lacy rushed upon (rut) the aforesaid John
Everard and wounded him badly, and the said John Everard in
his own defence struck the said John Lacy with a baselard [a
long dagger] under the left side [sub latere sinistro] whereby the
same John Lacy died on the Monday following ’ (891. 216/2/.
m. 261) (viii).
VI
There are certain reflections which are bound to force them-
selves upon the notice of those who study these Rolls. It is
vin. This is not an isolated case. On the very same skin of parchment 1s
a description of the striving together (Aitgabant ad-tnuicem) of William Stanhow
and Denis Ode. As Denis rushed upon (trruzt super) William, the said Walham
in his defence struck the said Denis with a baselard under the left side, by
which he also ‘ rece1ved his death.’
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 287
surprising, for one thing, to see the amount of extraneous crime
in which this parish was involved. One would have thought it
had criminals enough of its own; but it was always having to
hunt for those criminals of other tithings who passed through or
stayed furtively within this ‘ great thoroughfare town.’
In 1351, for example, there comes an urgent letter from
Andrew Aubrey, Mayor of London, to the Bailiffs and Good
Folk of the town of Hechene. Adam Tristram of Hechene, he
says, who had been bound apprentice to Richard Dygoun,
weaver, had suddenly quitted contrary to his oath, and was
understood to be residing in their town. ‘They are desired to
assist the said Richard to recover him as they would wish their
folk to be treated in the like case or weightier. ‘The Lord
have you in his keeping ’ (903. 38).
Again, in 1366, there is a ‘ Request to the Bailiffs and Good
Folk of Cambridge, Hatfield, Baldock and Hechene to seek after
one John Baudoc (Baldock), styling himself “‘ the son of the
King of Judza,’”’ who had stolen a light-grey horse and a
chestnut horse with saddle and bridle from Simon Walsshman
and Hugh Snewe, citizens of London ’ (903. 140).
Very often, too, they were called upon to answer for those of
their own tithing who committed crimes outside, as, for example,
In 1322, when Andrew of Hiche was charged, along with the
Mayor, the Bailiffs and many townsmen of Cambridge, with
‘ attacking and spoiling divers inns of the Masters and Scholars
of the University, climbing the walls, breaking the doors and
windows, mounting by ladders into the solars and assaulting the
said Masters and Scholars, imprisoning some, mutilating others,
and killing Walter de Shelton; and also with carrying away all
they could of the books and other the goods of the Masters and
Scholars so that no person dare go to the University of the said
Town for study ’ (889. 15 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 17d).
In the second place, one cannot fail to mark the increase in
licentiousness, if not in crime, during the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries. Was this due, as Maitland used to think, to
the abuse of the Benefit of Clergy, or must we lay some part of
it at the door of the mendicant friars who dispensed all too
prodigally the grace of absolution? It was a little thing to
confess your sin and purchase indulgence from a friar whom
you had not seen before and might never see again. Quite
another thing to make a clean breast of it to your own parish
288 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
priest, and have the feeling that he was thinking of it again
every time you met him in the street. And then, again, how
easy it was, as you listened to these friars preaching at the
Market Cross, to believe that theirs was the way of salvation,
and that ‘anyone dying in the Franciscan habit should never
come into condemnation.” The number of sinners buried in
this fashion grew to be enormous.
Vil
Another reflection arising from these Rolls is that the local
Justices of the Peace set a very poor example to the common
people of Hitchin. There are so many whom it is only possible
to describe in old Burton’s words: ‘ Sicutz titulis primi fuere, sic
et vitits—as they were first in rank so in rottenness.? From
this black catalogue of high malefactors we will select but two.
Here, from the Patent Rolls of 1352, is just one scandalous
episode in the life-crime of Robert de Kendale, son of Robert
de Kendale, Lord of Hitchin Manor (see Vol. I, pp. 37, 38
and 111), and himself a Justice and a man of mark: ‘ Whereas
Margaret, late the wife of Hamo le Strange, made a solemn vow
of chastity and of entering the religion of the minoresses, and
was coming to the King to enfeoff him of her inheritance in the
company of Robert de Kendale, then Knight of the Marshalsey
of the Household, who had knowledge of her vow, and main-
prised before good men to conduct her safely to the King, the
said Robert ravished her as she was coming in his company at
Kynefare Heath against her will and imprisoned her and carried
away her goods; wherefore the King appoints Richard, Earl of
Arundel and John Delves as Justices to inquire on the oath of
good men touching this felony and to determine the same’
(889. 26 Edw. III, Pt. 11, 15d).
In comparison with this perfidious and blackguardly outrage
the straightforward felonies of John de Beverle, Lord of Minsden,
seem almost venial. By some historians he has been accused
of more crimes than the many he admitted. ‘They have confused
him with a contemporary of the same name, a famous fishmonger
of London, who in 1365 was indicted for ‘ burglary of the Mother
Church of Lincoln.’ But Beverle’s ‘ true bill’ was fairly long.
As a young man, 1344, he had been concerned in ‘ lifting’ a
cargo worth some {£5,000 lying in the holds of Sir Robert de
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 289
Morle’s ships at Lowestoft (889. 18 Edw. II, Pt. 2, m. 49d). In
1357 he killed one Thomas Capoun ‘in a hot conflict [tmpetuose]
and not of malice,’ whereupon the King, in whose service he
was, granted him a pardon (889. 31 Edw. III, Pt. iii, m. 7) (ix).
Ten years later one finds him engaged in a feud with the Earl
of Cambridge, in the course of which his servant, Thomas
Elsyng, slew Robert, a retainer of the aforesaid Earl. For him
also Beverle obtains a pardon (889. 41 Edw. III, Pt. ii, m. 26).
Indeed, one finds him flouting the law and getting pardons for
all and sundry. He had only to ask and it was done. The old
King, Edward III, could refuse him nothing. Here and there
in the Patent Rolls can be counted over twenty-five pardons for
murders and affrays ‘ at the supplication of John Beverle the
King’s Esquire.” He was needing them on his own account to
the very end. In the last year of his life, 1381, this hoary-headed
sinner broke into the closes and houses of Margaret Wyssh of
Lichfield, wounded and imprisoned her, assaulted her servants
and carried away her goods (88g. 4 Rich. III, Pt. ii, m. 26d).
Another reflection that emerges from these Rolls is that the
majority of medieval crimes were committed not by malice
prepense or out of criminal intent, but, as was said of Beverle,
zmpetuose. ‘here was nothing calculating or middle-aged about
the Middle Ages. ‘Things were said and done in hot blood or
headlong ‘ on the top folly of youth.’ In the result they were
fierce and terrible enough, but they were for the most part
unpremeditated, done with the sudden, irresponsible ferocity of
children. All was over in a second. ‘The woman who one
moment threatened ‘to drive a spit into her neighbour’s guts ’
was, the next moment, her inseparable and bosom friend. Apart
from this madness, due not a little to superfluous health, there
were other contributing causes. But for the grace of God, a
‘cup of malmsey and some well-spic’d bruage,’ a tankard of the
far-famed Hitchin mead would waken the criminal who is latent
in every man. Again, there was the Devil. ‘To medieval men
and women he was startlingly near and omnipresent, and he
ix. In early medieval days the King was constantly intervening to save the
necks of his servants. In 1289, for example, we imprisoned William de Oke
at Hitchin for the wholesale slaughter of Gilbert de Brockhampton, Thomas
son of ‘Thomas de la More, Juliana de la More, Edith de la More and Edith
Hurthevene , whereupon the Kung signified to the local Justices that his servant
had been charged ‘ out of hatred and malice and not because he 1s guilty thereof,’
and in consequence ordered his release (Cal. Close Rolls, 1288-1296, p. 21).
VOL. II. T
290 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
tempted them at every turn. Even the law recognized his
infernal presence and his complicity in almost every crime.
The indictments of our Hitchin folk are framed in such an
understanding way as to suggest that the natural goodness of
the prisoner had been overborne by forces stronger than his
own free will; the sad results have been brought about ‘ at the
instigation of Satan,’ or ‘ no doubt at Satan’s prompting,’ or ‘ by
the beguiling of the powers of Darkness.’ It explains why so
many were acquitted, or dealt with in so merciful a way. Then,
too, there were those accidents which will happen in the best-
regulated towns. ‘They may cause the death of several citizens,
but, let no one mistake, it is not murder nor even homicide.
*Tis merely ‘ chance-medley,’ that blessed word which covers
such a multitude of crimes. Crowds will be crowds and
apprentices will be apprentices. People should not get in the
way when blows are being exchanged.
Here, by way of illustration, is a riot of the milder sort: ‘ The
Jurors say that, upon the Wednesday in the feast of St. Nicholas
the Bishop, the third year of the reign of Henry VI, Reginald
Cockayn of Almessho and John Sturgeon [for whom see above,
Vol. I, pp. 40, 82, 93-4, 140], Ralph Wettenale (x), yeoman of
Hicchen with an unbridled multitude of unknown men, armed
in a war-like manner, assembled at Hicchen, and lay in wait
there to beat and wound Robert Leventhorp, and made such an
assembly and rout then and there, that grave and manifest dis-
turbance of the tranquillity and peace of the Lord the King
resulted (accrevit) to a very great part of the county of Hertford,
and principally to the community of the town of Hicchen, for
fear of which assembly and rout the said community did not
dare to attend to its business ’ (Chancery Miscellanea, Cal. 62,
file 4, No. 132).
VIIl
Let us leave the dust of this tumult to settle, and come back
later to see if the people of Hitchin are behaving any better in
good Queen Bess’s day. On the whole perhaps they are, though
x. An old offender and one who was to offend again. On the Saturday in
Easter week, in the fifth year of Henry VI, he ‘ broke into the close and houses
of ‘Thomas atte hoo, esquire, at Offlye and stole ten shillings in money, two
gold rings worth 3s. 4d., a belt ornamented with silver worth 7s., two towels
worth 3s. 4d and a pound of pepper worth 18d.” As an alias he used the name
of John Rand (891, No. 219).
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 291
the passions of men do not alter greatly with the passing of the
years. Certainly there are not so many riots and not so many
murders. The high adventure of the seas, the far-flung routes
of trade, the incessant conflict with Spain, had done much to
occupy the thoughts of men. There is less ‘ occasion of idle-
ness,’ that ‘ mother and root of all vices, whereby hath insurged
and sprung and daily insurgeth and springeth continual thefts,
murders and other heinous offences and great enormities to the
high displeasure of God, the inquietation and damage of
the King and people, and to the marvellous disturbance of
the commonweal of the Realm ’ (22 Hen. VIII, cap. 12) (xi).
On the other hand, one does detect some new varieties of
crime. In medieval days, for example, one hears but little of
witchcraft in the courts. In Elizabethan and Stuart days one
hears too much of it: ‘1579-80. The jurors for the Queen
present that Joan Danne of Hytchen, spinster, being a common
sorceress and enchantress, as well of men as of beasts and other
things, not having the fear of God before her eyes, but instigated
and seduced by the Devil and of her malice aforethought on
1 November 21 Elizabeth by force and arms bewitched and
enchanted a certain John Sympson of Hytchen, yeoman, by
reason of which the said John Sympson from the said 1 November
until the last day of January then next following greatly lan-
guished, against the peace and form of the statute,’ etc. (Assize
Papers, 35/22). When in due time Mistress Danne was carried
off by the Devil, she was succeeded in her unholy trade by two
other Hitchin hags, Mary Bychance and Widow Palmer, who
added considerably to their stock-in-trade of charms and spells
and philtres by consorting with John Palmer, Widow Palmer’s
brother-in-law, at Norton. ‘This ‘ notorious Witch’ practised
his black art in this neighbourhood for over sixty years, and
had two ‘ familiars,’ the one in the form of a dog which he called
‘ George,’ and the other in the likeness of a woman whom he
x1. Professor Holdsworth writes: ‘I think the improvement was largely
due to the work of the Star Chamber, a court open to all from king to beggar.’
Certainly the testimony of contemporary writers and of modern historians
supports Palgrave’s view that ‘ its vigilant equity was the safeguard of the weak
and feeble, and that the poor looked to it for aid.” Lambarde calls the Star
Chamber ‘2 most noble and praiseworthy court.’ ‘ It 1s,’ says Coke, ‘ the
most honourable court (our Parliament excepted) that is in the Christian
world.’ ‘ It is,’ says Bacon, ‘ one of the sagest and noblest institutions of this
kingdom.’ See ‘ Select Cases in the Star Chamber ” (Selden Soctety), Palgrave’s
Council, 104-108, and Holdsworth, op. czt.,1. 504-8.
292 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
called ‘ Jezabell.” He had won his reputation, however, by
success in that ancient and simple expedient of destroying one’s
enemies by ‘ framing pictures of them in the clay,’ and then
consuming them with fire. It was said, for example, of Goodwife
Pearls of Norton that, ‘ whilst her image was consuming, she
lay in miserable torment, and when it was quite consumed
she died.’ All this because she had called upon Palmer once or
twice and asked him as her tenant to pay his arrears of rent.
In the end Palmer tried this trick once too often, and was himself
miserably tormented and destroyed; but not before he had given
away the fact that Mary Bychance and Widow Palmer were
‘ bound to the Divel,’ and just as guilty as he.
There were, of course, witches and witches. Some were
inclined to be not harmful but helpful with their necromantic
art. The most respectable amongst them practised under the
name and style of ‘ white witches’ and ‘ diviners,’ or disguised
themselves as alchemists. For example, there was Mary Cocker,
whom Thomas Sadleir of Temple Dinsley had to examine in
1587, “touching a vision or ghost that appeared to her in the
night season, and warned her to tell the Queen that there was a
jewell in making for her, which if she received would be to her
destruction ’’ (Cal. S.P.D., 1581-1590, p. 404). Contemporary
with this white witch there was a celebrated diviner living at
Ickleford, a mile or two out of Hitchin, to whom those in
trouble were tempted to resort. If the town constable could
not help you—and he was generally a poor thing to put your
trust in—you might do worse than visit Thomas Harding.
Robert Dickenson, ‘having a wastcote purloyned from him,’
Goodwife Strat, ‘ having a parcel of newe cloth stollen away,’
William Kinge, ‘having lost two horses which were stollen
from him,’ these and many others are known to have
consulted him.
Some faith was put in his prescription against the plague:
“certain words in a scroll of parchment,’ to be suspended from
the patient’s neck. But so many of his patients died that people
began to disbelieve in Thomas Harding. In 1590 this so-called
diviner was taken like any common wizard to the county gaol,
and lost all his fame and reputation in a cloud of witness. ‘The
saddest deception urged against him was on the part of Mary
Pennefather : ‘ Having a woman childe of the age of fower yeares
which could neither goe nor speke, she caryed her to Thomas
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MYOM LV LSINGHOTY NV
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 293
Harden, because it is noysed in the country that he is a wyse
man and can skyll of many thinges, who told her that her childe
was a changelinge but that he would in tyme helpe her. The
next tyme that she came unto him he bade her to take a nutt
and to pick out the curnell and fiyll it with quicksilver, and to
stop the hole with waxe, and to bynd a thred across over the
nutte and to lay it under a pyllow wher the chylde should lye,
and that should helpe it. Her childe having therebye noe helpe,
she repared to him againe, and then he bad her to sett the childe
in a chare uppon her dungell by the space of an hower uppon a
sonny day, which she did and the childe had no helpe.’ She
gave him six pence for his reward ‘and promysed more ’ (xii)
(72. I. 3).
IX
Another feature of this later period is a growing formality
in the administration of justice. In medieval days a criminal
was dragged into the nearest Justice’s hall and tried instanter.
By Queen Elizabeth’s time the Hitchin Justices sat in state in
their appointed sessions at the Sun. Next door to them, ‘in
the great white chamber ’” [2 alb’ magno cubiculo] of the Angel,
sat the Commissary or Surrogate in his Court of the Archdeaconry
of Huntingdon. It was his province to hear offences of a spiritual
kind. There, for example, in 1590, Margery Blocke is ‘ pro-
nounced contumacious and excommunicated ’ for defaming one
John Tristram. ‘Tristram himself is tried for ‘ offering violence
to William Draper in the church ’ (xiii). There, in 1593, Eliza-
beth Gill confesses her sin with John Mercer and is ordered ‘ to
do her penance on Sundaye next in penttente vesture.’ ‘There,
in 1594, John Smith is called to show cause why at the time of
divine service at St. Mary’s he, on behalf of his own daughter,
forbade the banns of marriage between William Townende of
Hitchin and Widow Andrews of the same parish. ‘There, in
1596, George Girforde and Francis Huckell were charged, ‘ for
xu. For the history of witchcraft in England and the law concerning it see
Lecky, History of Rationaksm, 1. pp. 1-103, and Holdsworth, op. ezt., 1v.
sie This case affords an interesting example of jurisdictions overlapping;
for 1t was brought not only before the Archdeacon as a matter of brawling in
church, but before the Justices as a common assault, and before the Court
Leet as a ‘ presentment * by the Homage of an offending manor tenant.
294 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
that they did go to carte in the fields of Hitchin, the day being
a holy day, and thereby profaned it ’ (xiv) (182. m. 12 verso, 40
verso, 187 verso, 196, 296 verso, and 333 verso) (xv).
As for the criminal and secular business at the Sun, it was
more efficiently if not so expeditiously transacted. Undoubtedly
it took longer to get men hanged, though the words that record
it are the soul of brevity: ‘ Po se cul ca null sus = Ponit se culpa-
bilem, catalla nulla, suspendatur = he puts himself guilty, no
chattels (i.e. for forfeiture), let him be hanged.’ It took still
longer to hang women, for—matrons or maids—they had all
learned the trick of pleading pregnancy, and were given nine
months in which to make it good. But one is glad to see that
not so many felons are escaping on frivolous or technical defences
through the meshes of the law. Once upon a time, for example,
when the confused or careless clerk had written ‘ Hereford ’ instead
of ‘ Hertford ’ in the indictment—and he did it amazingly often—
the prisoner was quick to take advantage of the flaw and claimed
to be acquitted (xvi). The Justices of Queen Elizabeth’s day
were not such slaves to the written word; they gave leave to
amend wherever it was needed. One is glad also to see that
the benefit of clergy has been curtailed (xvii), that there is no
longer any intimidation and but little bribery.
You may measure the improvement best of all in the cases
that are brought before the Court. Let us take the last ten
years of the sixteenth century and the first thirty years of the
seventeenth century. The country at this period swarms with
vagrants; it is impoverished by years of famine and decimated
by the plague. Yet with all this there is a marked decrease in
xiv. In a similar case of the same year the parties replied that they only
worked ‘ tyll eighte of the clocke in the morning and were both at morning
and eveninge prayer ’ (182. m. 333 v ).
xv. For an exposition of the criminal jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Courts
generally see W. H. Hale’s Precedents and Proceedings in Criminal Causes,
1475-1640, and Holdsworth, op. cit.,1. 619-621.
xvi. Professor Holdsworth cites a similar case 1n which the misspelling of
* murderavit ” for ‘ murdravit ’ saved a prisoner’s skin. See his account of the
accuracy required itn indictments, op. ctt , 11. 616-620.
xvi. By the Statute 4 Hen. VII, c 14, 1t was enacted that ‘ the privilege of
the church ’ should be allowed but once to such as were not 1n orders; and that
every person asking his clergy on the ground that he was 1n orders should pro-
duce his ‘ letters of orders’ or a certificate of his bishop before the court.
Furthermore, every person converted and allowed his benefit of clergy should
be marked upon the brawn of the left thumb (M for murder and F for felony)
before being handed over to the bishop For the later statutes restricting
benefit of clergy see Holdsworth, op. cit. , 111. 297-299.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 295
serious crime. For the most part they are petty cases that come
up for hearing in the Sessions at the Sun.
Let us sit awhile at the back of the Court and hold a watching
brief. 1590. ‘ Call ‘Thomas Kent of Aston.” He answers to
his name and comes before the bar. ‘ The charge against you,
Thomas Kent, is that with a Staff you did maliciously strike
Thomas Bettes also of Aston, yeoman, in the chancel of Hitchin
church, drawing blood.’ We are too far off to catch what he
says in defence, though we long to know why two men of Aston
should want to fight a duel in the chancel of our church. But
we do hear the Justices sending him for trial. It is too serious
an offence, they fear, for them to try, for the Statute under
which Kent is accused provides that any person convicted of
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striking another with a weapon in any church shall have one of
his ears cut off, or in default of losing his ears shall be branded
on the cheek (72.1.4). Quarter Sessions shall decide.
1603, 30th August. ‘ Call Edward Hurste.’ He in his turn
stands forward to face the accusation and the evidence of Good-
wife Robyns, who for a woman speaks up uncommonly well.
One can hear every word she says: ‘I being the wyfe of John
Robyns, labourer of Hitchin, did go into the corn feyld of the
parish of Hitchin to gleane graine as is usuall for all pore to doe,
and being on a land whear no grayne was uncarryed wythin the
space of thre acres by judgment of those which doe know ytt,
Edward Hurste, the sonne of Daniel Hurste beinge farmer of
the tythe, there meeting me, asked me wheather I went. I
296 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
answered ‘‘ to gleane, I cannot tell wheather.’”” Whereupon the
said Edward inadvysedlye came to me and did stryke me sud-
danlye wyth a pitchforke, being a sufficient forke to worke wyth,
on the head and on the loynes, until he brake his forke, playnlye
to be proved by those which wear wyth me in the field, by means
whereof I could not labour to do any busynesse to sustain me
and my children and doe my busynesse for my husband, neyther
yet can, the which hath bin not only greate hinderance to their
maintenance, but I am still without my health. The markes of
the blowes wear seene and knowen by these my neighbours of
honest fame and behavyour, Goodwyfe Hobbes, Widow Brown-
sall, Goodwyfe Mytten and Goodwyfe Turrell ’ (72. 1. 36).
The goodwives are so garrulous about their so-called evidence
that we shall have to miss the other cases. Also it would be
pleasant to go down to the Sun parlour and have a ‘ refresher.’
As we bow to their Worships and sidle by the Clerk’s table, he
thoughtfully hands us the list. It is a pity we cannot stay.
There should be some merriment in what is still to come.
Henry Thraie, brickmaker of Hitchin, is up once again ‘ for that
he and William Harold, labourer, doe usually walke in the nighte
without lawful reason.’ We know them very well: ‘ Arcades
ambo, id est blackguards both’ (72.1.42). That impudent
fellow, John Cooke of Gosmore, is to answer not so much for
selling beer without a licence—that is a mere trifle—but for
boasting in his great beery voice that ‘they were fools that
would give money for a licence’ (72. 1.37). William Lane of
Walsworth and William Crawley of Offley, gent., have been
‘harbouring rogues and vagabonds’” again (72.1.54). John
Browne of Hitchin, brickmaker, has been assaulting ‘ Edmund
Lilly by striking him with an earthen pot upon the lips, causing
three wounds ’ (72. 5.98). Edward Jeeves of Hitchin, innkeeper,
has insulted ‘Thomas Woodward by ‘ refusing to sell him a quart
of beer for one penny ’ (72. 5.139). Down at the bottom of the
list are some ‘ sturdy vagabonds ’” waiting to be dispatched, one
of whom, for better success in begging, had ‘ feigned himself to
be dumb,’ and the other, ‘a counterfeit Bedlam,’ had feigned
himself to be mad (892).
xX
A few years later the whole of England went mad in the
Civil War; and it is grievous to watch the efficiency of the
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 297
magistrates and the integrity of the minions of the law giving
way under the strain. Fortunately there was less to do; for
most of those who should have been in gaol were fighting with
the forces. But those criminals who stayed at home had no
longer the same respect for justice. On all hands one hears
‘peremptory saucy fellows’ uttering ‘many uncivil, slighting
and insufferable speeches too tedious and unfit to relate,’ to the
‘scorn and affront of those in authority.’
‘ Obedience 1s a stranger 1n the land,
Hardly subjective to the magistrate,
For Englishmen do all subjection hate.
Worse still, one suspects that the constables are taking
advantage of the times and beginning to line their pockets:
‘Presentment that John Monck, bailiff of the half-hundred of
Hitchin, by colour of his office exacted from William Lilly 12d.
for excusing him from appearing on the jury’ (72. 5. 283).
Nevertheless, justice of a sort was done even in the worst days
of the war. In the tumult caused by Prince Rupert’s attack on
Hitchin in 1643 one is pleased to detect the still, small voice of
Nathaniel Hobbs, mercer of Hitchin, invoking the assistance of
the law. Whatever may happen about Rupert’s threat to plunder
the town, he is not going to have his goods despoiled. ‘ There
Was a piece of stuff,’ he says in his information, ‘ called per
petuana, measuring 24 yards, lying upon the bulke of my shop,
which piece Katherine Picks saw a man secret under his sinamon-
coloured coat, whereupon, being informed by her, I did pursue
the man, and, having caught him about half a mile from Hitchin,
caused the constable to apprehend him ’ (72. 1. 70).
You will observe that it was Hobbs and not the constable
who did the heavy work. And that is characteristic of the time;
for throughout the Civil War and Commonwealth the head-
borough, bailiff, watchman or whatever you like to call him, was
functioning less and less. ‘The trouble was that you could not
get a decent man to take this thankless office: ‘ 1657. Present-
ment to this Quarter Sessions of the county of Hertford that
the inhabitants of several parishes do present inefficient men to
be constables and headboroughs, such as cannot read nor write,
prophane swearers and drunkards and alehouse keepers ’ (72. 1.
121). We at Hitchin were no better than the rest. Abraham
Slow, Josias Bum—you can tell from the very names of our
298 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
constables what manner of men they were: ‘staid, heavy,
indifferent,’ as Leigh Hunt afterwards described them, ‘ more
coat than man, pondering, yet not pondering, old but not
reverend, immensely useless.’ They see nothing, they hear
nothing, they do nothing, except send in their quarterly reports
and draw their quarterly allowance. And what reports they
are! ‘ All things are in good order for ought I know: Nothing
presentable but Omny Beny: All things is peacable and Quiat:
We have made sarch for vagarantes and Roges and find non and
all is Omnibus Benae a corden to my warrant: All things in our
parish and hambletts are all in good order to the best of our
severall knowledges.’
Omnibus Benae! And yet the Court Leet knows well
enough that things are far from well, even in the godly dispen-
sation of the Commonwealth. Over the head of the constable
they have to present such as ‘ have been found in a suspitious
naughty house and can not give any good account of themselves ’;
such common, profane swearers as ‘ swear by my Maker or by
the name of God ’; such scandalous victuallers as John Richards
of Charlton, 1653, who ‘suffers divers persons to sit drinking
overmuch in his house on the Lord’s Day ’(72.1.104). The
vicar, ‘Thomas Kidner, is driven by the misconduct of his people
to send for a copy of John Downame’s Foure Treatises tending
to disswade all Christians from the Abuses of Swearing, Drunkenesse,
Whoredome and Bribery, and he reads them to his flock instead
of sermons. If that much-vaunted decade from 1648 to 1658
was really, as they said, a ‘ paradise for Puritans,’ it was one which
had its fatal ‘Tree of Knowledge, its Serpent and its Woman.
XT
Nor was the Restoration the paradise for Pagans that it
promised to be. Almost before the shouting had died down
and the last mug of ale was spent, it became clear that the easy-
going Monarch was not as easy as he seemed. People were not
going to be allowed to do just as they liked, after all. Moreover,
it was not only the King but the Cavalier Justices who had come
into their own again ; those mighty people who for ten long
years had been put down from their seats, and who were now
resolved to make the humble and meek know who were their
masters. One sees the reins of authority tightening, and the
manos,
‘ MORE COAI THAN MAN’
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 299
common people putting on once more, as by habit, the ancient
yoke of obedience. When John Hurst of Hitchin refused to
serve as a juror at the Assizes of 1660, he was given the full
penalty of £5, and in default of payment was promptly sent to
prison (Herts Q.S. Court for January 7, 1660/1, f. 84d). As swift
and dire a punishment was meted out to Richard Kidd of Hitchin,
‘for refusing to keep watch and ward when called upon to do so
by the constable, and also for persuading his neighbours from
it ’’(72. 1.299); and even the great Lady Sadleir of Temple
Dinsley was punished ‘ for refusing to pay the constable’s rate.’
Now and then you meet a Roundheaded townsman with
some spirit left in him. For example, Henry Smith, who was
‘taken at Hitchin in the apparell of a woman’ in 1666, showed
fight like any man (72. 1.187). ‘That same year James Denham
was ‘up’ for ‘ abuseinge and lameinge a Head Borrow of the
parish of Hitchin ’; and in 1673 Sir Ralph Radcliffe committed
for trial William and Judith Chambers of Hitchin ‘ for rescuing
their son out of the hands of William Heard, the constable of
Hitchin, who since cannot be found ’ (894.5). One may infer
from these assaults that the constables were not so ‘ immensely
useless ’ in this period, that they were beginning to perform their
duties. More care is being taken also over their appointment.
Sir John Spencer of Offley, a light of the local bench, was most
particular about this. ‘ The lower Constableship,’ as he used to
say, quoting from Lambarde [The Duties of Constables, Ed. 1631,
p. 5], ‘is a very finger of the hand of the Constable of England.’
‘'To be the High Constable of Hitchin,’ he writes in 1709, ‘ 1s
a post of Honour which Mr. Sheppard is not ambitious of and
requires greater abilities both of mind and purse than he pretends
to be master of ’ (894. 8).
Spencer did more than choose able men to be constables; he
instructed them about their powers—those considerable powers
which derive not so much from Statute as from ancient custom
and are recognized by common law. ‘ Of the extent of their
powers,’ comments Blackstone, ‘ considering what manner of
men are for the most part put into their office, it is perhaps very
well that they are generally kept in ignorance.’ That was not
Spencer’s view. At all hazard he was for restoring the full
rigour and terror of the law. You can mark the difference in
the way his constables stride—and not shuffle—through the
streets. You can see the sons of Belial slinking away from the
300 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
thunder of their voice and the sudden lightning of their eye.
“For not O’Baying me in my office when commanded’ has
become almost a capital offence; and woe betide those who show
any spirit now. In 1706, when John Rabey ‘ threatened to stab
the constables of Hitchin or any Justice of the Peace that should
make an order to attach him,’ he recovered consciousness to
find himself nursing a broken and diminished head in the Hitchin
Bridewell, there compelled to diet himself on ‘the bread of
adversity and water of affliction ’ for one calendar month of days
(894. 11).
Another reform which Spencer and Sir Ralph Radcliffe
carried through was the provision of a Bridewell for the town.
It was high time, for the ‘ cage’ that had been in use since
Queen Elizabeth’s day could no longer hold the gaol-birds that
came in. With fifteen thousand bricks and three loads of timber,
fetched from Breachwood Green, and ‘two little windowes,’
and eighty pounds of iron, they built something to withstand
the wear and tear of the ‘sons of violence.’ To furnish this
new house at the bottom of Tylers Street, they added a few
plank beds, ‘a block to knock hempe upon,’ a ‘ whipin post,’
and three other posts for madmen and desperate prisoners.
Though this was accomplished at the modest cost of £43 4s. 5d.,
the people of Hitchin would not contribute more than £20, for
they were at the same time being ‘ dunned’ for £125 2s. 3d.,
their share of the new county gaol at Hertford (72. 1. 422); and
besides, as one quite respectable citizen observed, ‘ you cannot
tell how soon you may find yourself inside these strongholds of
detention.’
XII
What with a new Bridewell and brand-new constables, the
men of Hitchin found it difficult to commit as many crimes as
they were accustomed to. But some of their deeds deserve to
be recorded. The first concerns young James Whitney, better
known in after years as ‘ Captain ’ James Whitney, the notorious
highwayman. Born, as most of his biographers agree, at
Stevenage, he was put apprentice to a butcher at Hitchin, and
proceeded to teach his master a few tricks of the trade that till
then he never knew. One day, for example, when the butcher
came grumbling into the shop at having failed to buy a par-
ticularly fine calf, Whitney proposed that they should get it for
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 301
nothing, or, in plain words, steal it. Now the calf belonged to
the keeper of an alehouse, who somehow got an inkling of what
they meant to do. Losing no time, he set about to confound
their knavish tricks. Luckily there was at the time lodging in
his house a man with a performing bear, which the innkeeper
took and placed in the stable where the calf was kept, at the
same time removing the calf to other quarters. As soon as it
was dark, young Whitney groped his way into the stable, and
was fumbling about for the head-stall of the calf when suddenly
he found himself gripped and clawed by some unknown monster,
and cried out that ‘ the Devil had seized him’; whereupon his
master rushed into the stable, and with the utmost difficulty
rescued his terrified and sadly mauled apprentice (905).
It is hardly fair to Whitney to cite this the first and least
glorious of his exploits. To do him full justice one should read
the little chap-book entitled The Life of Captain fames Whitney,
containing his most remarkable robberies and other adventures,
continued to hts execution near Smithfield Bars the first of February
1691/2. It is a scurrilous production, done in the swaggering
style of one who held a well-ordered life in horror and who
scorned all law-abiding citizens for the cowards that they were.
But it has great moments. Who that has once read it will ever
forget the episode of the parson who had been made to ‘ stand
and deliver ’ by Whitney and his gang? It was their wild whim
to make him deliver other things than money. It was years
since any of them had heard a sermon. ‘They would hear one
delivered there and then. Accordingly Mr. Warren, lecturer of
the church at Greenwich, stood up on the King’s highway and
preached. ‘Taking his text from the word T.H.E.F.T., and
dividing his discourse into five headings, one for each of its five
letters, he warned them at considerable length and with many
a Scriptural citation of the end that awaited thieves. When the
sermon was ended Whitney, on behalf of his comrades, replied
in the same sanctimonious tones. ‘They desired in some practical
way to show their true sense of contrition. It was against their
custom to make any ‘ Collection ’ except for their own fraternity,
but they would at least pay tithes, and return him a tenth of what
had just been taken (896).
Whitney, it is evident, was an artist to his finger-tips, and
he died like an artist, too. ‘ Every man is handsome that goes
to be hanged,’ but Captain James, in the flower of his youth,
302 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
‘ dressed in a fine silk Night-Gown, a large white Wig, and a
white beaver hat,’ made a resplendently fine end. If he knew
not how to live, at least he would show an admiring world how
to die. Upon the day of his execution ‘ scaffolds were built and
seats bespoken at pretty bumping prices in Balconies, Windows
and Turrets,’ and there were many wet eyes amongst the
women in the crowd at ‘ the deep damnation of his taking off ’
(896).
From these heights it is a ‘ drop,’ indeed, to sink to the level
of those lewd fellows of the baser sort who were also apprenticed
to ‘ the art and mystery of crime’ at Hitchin. How drab their
performances read, how snivelling and ill-considered their
defences! In 1669 William Whitehead of Hitchin, who has
been taken up for ‘ stealing certain netts and ferritts the goods
of Sylvanus Rowley,’ tries to make their Worships swallow this
sorry tale: ‘I happened to goe into a certaine ffeild to gather
slowes, and there accidentally mett with a strange unknown
person with ferrits and netts, and after some little discourse he
begged to come home to my house and eate a hott lofe and drinke
a pott of ale, and being there a little while hee left the said netts
within my house ’ (72. 1.216). ‘That sort of stuff was not likely
to bamboozle Sir Ralph Radcliffe. In 1685 Henry Fisher of
Hitchin is before the Bench ‘ for selling beer without a licence.’
And all his drunken wits inspire him to say is that his wife sells
vegetables and custards, and that her customers and neighbours
who come to her house to eat the aforesaid vegetables and
custards have been in the habit of sending for beer to the next
alehouse and have drunk it in his house (894. 6). We are come
into the period of slyness and deceit; there are a hundred and one
new-fangled ways to defeat the ends of justice. One reads of
Nathaniel Whitmore of Hitchin ‘ concealing Nathaniel Flower
who is wanted for stealing a horse of considerable value from
Thomas Perkeys of Horesheath ’ (72. 1.413). One reads of
Thomas Browne of this parish refusing to prosecute Daniel
Hodge ‘ for stabbing the said Browne’s sow in his yard in the
night.’ Browne had compounded the felony and done quite
well by it (894.7). It is a time of sharks and artful dodgers,
an age of approvers and receivers: all that underworld of knaves
which Charles Hitchin described in his A True Discovery of the
Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers, 1718—a tract which he
printed at his own cost when he rose to be a Marshal of the
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City of London, and which he distributed gratis in order, as he
said, to make the blind officers of the law to see.
Two other cases of this period should be brought to light if
only for their singularity. In 1697 ‘a paper of scandalous
verses, very much reflecting upon the King and government,’
was found upon two men ‘now in gaol on the suspicion of
wandering about the county with counterfeit passes.” It was
believed by the Justices that James Lawrenceson of Hitchin
was either himself the Jacobite author of these verses or the
circulator of them. ‘They therefore sent him to Quarter Sessions
to clear himself of any treasonable intent (72. 1.427). In the
following year they had to send a whole bevy of Hitchin women
to Hertford ‘ for maliciously and violently striking, binding and
almost strangling of Elizabeth the wife of Francis Zarvite.’
This woman, it seems, had been breaking her marriage vows by
consorting openly and scandalously with Ralph Thrale, father
of the afterwards celebrated Henry Thrale of Offley. This was
more than the matrons of Hitchin could stand, and a select
company of them, Sarah Marshall, Elizabeth Howell, Susannah
Sutton, Mary Hutting, Sarah Dellow and Eady Burrows pro-
ceeded to vindicate the reputation of their sex by taking the
unhelpful law into their own hands. They themselves were
made to smart for it, but they did not greatly mind. ‘They had
gained their end. They had so marred the beauty of the Zarvite
that she did not trouble them again (894. 10).
XIII
It was just as well that this rough-and-ready form of justice
was not punished out of evistence, for throughout the Georgian
era one marks a prodival increase of crime and a corresponding
sl.ckness in the executive. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,
writing in 1723, refers to a ‘ Bill Cooking up to have the word
*‘ not” taken out of the Commandments and inserted in the
Creed.’ ‘ Honour, virtue and reputation,’ she adds, ‘ which we
used to hear of in our nursery, are as much laid aside as crumpled
ribbons.” Men and women were no longer ‘ eminent’ for holy
living and dying, but for cursing, swearing, drinking and all
kinds of fashionable wickedness. And not only did they fall
into these evil courses, but, as John Wesley complained, they
gloried in them, ‘ Yea and avouch them in the face of the sun.’
304 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
If our informations speak true, the town was infested at that
time with ‘common scolds leading a lewd and unquiet life
amongst their neighbours,’ with ‘ persons of an indecent dis-
position, of profligate life and conversation,’ with ‘ common and
assiduous disturbers of the peace, originators of divers quarrel-
lings, controversies and fights.” One suspects that the new
habit of drinking gin had something to do with this degeneration.
“1741. Nov. 18th. Paid helping Gin Tom to the Justices, 6d.’
There is an unmistakable honesty about the passions of men too
valiantly full of malt liquor. ‘Their crimes are clean-handed,
committed in daylight, done as it were by the act of God,
even the God Bacchus. But those who soaked themselves
in gin poisoned the very springs of crime. Their passions,
as described in another Hitchin information, were ‘ odious
and detestable,’ as loathsome as Iago, as debauched as any
Dutchman.
Here are one or two sordid instances of this decline: 1715.
Indictment of Richard Welch ‘for assaulting and frighting
Rebecca Bodfish in to Fitts ’ (894. 13): 1727. Summons against
Sarah Cullyford for assault. It appears from the evidence that
‘she got up from her seat [in a Hitchin coffee-house] in a great
passion and called Thomas Smith Rogue and Villain and other
scurrilous words. And, when the said Thomas Smith at last
sate down with a pipe in his hand and desired Mrs. Cullyford
to be easy, she persisted in abuising of the said Smith and
catched his pipe out of his hand and threw it into his face and
broke it in severall pieces. Get you gone, she added, and took
up a Broome and struck the said Smith over the head ’ (894. 16);
1729. Evidence taken against James Daniel of Hitchin. ‘ As he
lay sleeping with a woman in a footpath in the field called
Eighteen Acre Hole, one Thomas Pate came up and did waken
the said James Daniel in a friendly manner, and advised him
not to sleep on the ground; upon whichthe said J. D. arose and
drew a pen-knife secretly and made an assault upon the body
of Thomas Pate, and next on Edward Price, and next on George
Fitzjohn, and lastly stabbed Barnaby Starr into the back privately,
secretly, and at unawares to the hazard of the life of the said
Barnaby Starr ’ (894. 17); 1754. Indictment of John Bayley ‘ for
wilfully frighting and forcing the horse of Dr. Midwinter over
an hedg whereby he was killed’ (894.19); 1765. Indictment
against George Chalkley, tailor, ‘ for endeavouring to persuade
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 305
Sarah Lincoln of the parish of Hitchin to give arsenic to his
brother Henry Taylor in order to poison him” (xviii).
Of slackness in the executive one could cite evidence without
end. Too often magistrates were appointed of ‘such as had
gout in the understanding.’ Not only were they lax in their
office, but inclined to think lightly of the penal statutes when a
couple of capons arrived at their hall door. Too often one finds
the Clerk to the Magistrates selected from one of their own
retainers, a man who had picked up a little knowledge by
attending on common juries and considered himself a lawyer.
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Time, which is the essence of any offence, is to him a matter
of no moment. In one charge of the period the learned Clerk,
too lazy to verify the date, describes it as ‘ about the time when
black cherries begin to ripen.’ ‘Too often the constable, ‘ con-
temptuously and for the sake of corrupt lucre,’ would allow any
astute offender ‘to make himself to be absent.” Too often he
wasted the substance of the parish in his own riotous living:
xviu. For a further example of this odious crime one has to proceed to
the year 1809, when George Smith of Hitchin was accused of ‘ putting a
quantity of arsenic into a pot of tea with intent to poison Josias Johnson and
Elizabeth Stallybrass’ (894. 29).
VOL. II. U
3066 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
‘1738. Dec. 7. Disbursments conveying John Burges to Hert-
ford. For victuals and beer before we went out and by the
way, 2s.: For three ordinarys and extraordinarys, 3s. 4d.: For
money spent at finishing the Bill, 2s. 6d.’ It is true that those
who kept off the drink did show some signs of efficiency. There
was Paul Williams for one, the soul of vigilance by day, and
said to sleep with one eye open like a cat at night. If ever he
went off duty as constable, it was to lend the churchwardens
or overseers a hand: ‘ 1736. Oct. 5. Pd. William Gregory full
with the small pox, 6d.: Pd. Paul Williams with him to
Wimondly, 6d.’ Again, there was James Driver, six foot four
in his socks, and as smart in the whole length and breadth of
him as any constable could be: ‘ 1737, May 16. Pd. John Moore
for painting the constable’s and headborough’s staves, 8s.’ If
his brain was not quite as smart as his body, he knew where to
go to furbish it, for Sir John Spencer of Offley Place had left a
very competent successor: ‘ 1739. Jan. 10. Pd. going to see Sir
Henry Penrice for advice, 1s.’ (895).
But for the most part the constables were a set of old
dodderers, ‘ who had the maximum of feet, the minimum of
brains.’ Sans sense, sans strength, sans legs, sans everything,
you might call them a set of old women, for more than one
woman was appointed. In 1765, Francis Field, the master of
the House of Correction for the Half Hundred of Hitchin, being
dead, ‘ his widow being very infirm, and in the 8oth year of
her age, prays to be made keeper of the said house.’ And as no
one urges her unfitness for the post, she is accordingly appointed
(894.20). ‘Too often the Bridewell or House of Correction is
as infirm as Widow Field. In 1721, only twenty-eight years
from its foundation, it has to be described as ‘ ruinous, very
decayed and out of repair, in so much that the prisoners and
felons sent thither cannot safely be detained ’ (Herts Q.S. Order
Book, Easter Sessions, 1721). In 1737 it is still more dilapidated
by a band of ‘strolers, travelling about telling fortunes and
calling themselves Egyptians,’ who were used to fresh air and
resented being confined. ‘The constable on that occasion took
his duties seriously: ‘ Oct. 21, 22, 23 and 24. For 2 chains,
4 locks and mending 2 gunns to guard the prisoners, 2s.: For
one pound of Powder and 2 pound of Shott, 1s. 5d.: For two
men to guard ’em four nights, 8s.: For quartering the women,
8s.: For their eating and drinking at the Chequer and Ball, 8s.:
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 307
For a Supper for the Watch at the Rose and Crown, 6s. 8d.:
Spent at Stevenage on the road going to Hertford, 4s.: Spent
at Watton going to Hertford, 2s.: For 7 guardsmen to Hert-
ford, 14s.’ (895). On the 6th day of March, 1760, Oswell Odell
‘broke and escaped from the House of Correction at Hitchin.’
After being at large for three years he was recaptured, and for
his heinous offence was fined 1s. ‘Twelve years later, 1774, the
House was rebuilt at the cost of £76.
This was the prison which John Howard inspected in 1776.
‘It consists,’ so he writes, ‘ of a room for men 203 feet by 10};
and over it two rooms for women who go up to them by a ladder.
No chimney in any of the rooms, no straw, no court, no water,
no allowance, no employment ’ (899. 213). Every year the Over-
seers, under compulsion, send a few shillings to relieve ‘ the
poore prisoners of King’s Bench and Marshalsea,’ but they
trouble little enough about the prisoners of Hitchin. For a long
time after Howard’s visit they have to be described in the annual
report to Quarter Sessions as ‘ quite naked and lousy.’ In 1789
the magistrates in Quarter Sessions assembled deputed the Rev.
Anthony Hamill, D.D., the Rev. Henry Baker, Charles de Laet,
William Baker and Adolphus Meetkerke to make an official
inspection. ‘Their report follows that of Howard pretty closely,
but it gives some additional particulars: ‘ The building is brick,
lined with wood. It has two small windows with shutters which
are necessarily shut close every night to prevent the people in
the yard giving the prisoners implements whereby to escape,
which has frequently been done. The Necessary belonging to
a very large workhouse adjoins the prison and 1s excessively
offensive. The keeper whose salary is {£24 a year maintains
prisoners on an allowance of a pound of bread a day and water.
He lives more than a quarter of a mile from the prison and only
visits it once a day to let out the prisoners for necessary occasions.
He declares that the stench arising from the Necessaries is so
unwholesome that if prisoners are detained a fortnight they
constantly sicken and generally die very soon’ (Herts Q.S.
Minute Book, vol. 1783-1797).
XIV
At the close of their report the visiting magistrates had
recommended that the Hitchin Prison should be used as infre-
3088 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
quently as possible, and that even short-term prisoners should
do their time at Hertford. For that suggestion our Hitchin
felons owed them little thanks, for the Hertford Prison was, if
anything, more foul than ours, and to escape from it was difficult
indeed. Death was the only sure way out, and those were
fortunate who died swift and soon. In 1734, Thomas Crawley
of Hitchin fell with the Newgate fever, as it was termed, in
Hertford Gaol, and died after lingering forty days. Most of
his fellow-prisoners shared the happy release. Hundreds of
other Hitchin men died of what was called ‘ the pining sickness,’
which by a hollow sham the Coroner always attributed to ‘ divine
visitation,’ when it was obviously a mere matter of bad drains.
The abject misery of incarceration comes out well in the petition
of John Fisher, formerly of Hitchin, in 1738: ‘ Your poor peti-
tioner sheweth that he ’as been in prison above 12 month, my
wife being an evel woman and Desiering my Death, she ’as
continually from Quarter Session to Quarter Session sworne
the Peace against me which my long confinement must certainly
be my Death if your Worships don’t take itt into your con-
sideration and give me some Relieve.’ On this petition the
Clerk of the Peace has endorsed ‘ Nothing done.’ ‘Twenty-two
weeks later comes another pitiful petition. Fisher is ‘in a
perishing condition, and destitute of all the necessaries of lyfe.’
He asks if he may be transported; anything rather than rot to
death slowly in the county gaol (894. 18).
“Nothing done.’ That is the constant burden also of the
visiting justices’ report. ‘ The cells are not whitewashed once
a year as the regulations require.’ 1789. ‘ There are no venti-
lators (xix); no separate room for the sick; no bathing tubs.
The Act is not hung up in the gaol.’ 1790. ‘ There is neither
surgeon nor apothecary.’ And always there is the complaint
against ‘ the King’s goal-keeper (stc),’ as he is pleasantly called,
that he does not play the game, or, in their own words, that
he ‘ charges exhorbitant Garnish money and fees.” The few
things that ave done prove very unhelpful from the prisoners’
point of view: ‘1771. For repairing pistolls and blunderbusses,
7s.: 1774. For new links to leg irons and keys to leg iron
locks, 14s.: 1780. Ordered that shutters be put to the windows
of the Goal Chapple to prevent them being broken: 1784. Ordered
xix ‘Proposals to ventilate Hertford Gaol’ had been formulated thirty
years before, 1759.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 309
that a door be added to the doorway between the 2 Felons wards
to prevent the prisoners speaking through the same: 1785.
Ordered that the Gaoler shall no longer sell intoxicating liquors
to the prisoners but in lieu of his profits therefrom shall be
granted an additional salary of {20 a quarter: 1787. To planks,
iron Bars etc., to make good the Hole in the wall where the
prisoners broak threw, £1 gs. 7d.: To work round the top of
the wall in the yard with iron spikes and branches to prevent
them getting over, {12 8s. 6d.: To layin an oak plank floor to
prevent their getting under the foundation of the wall, £6 3s. 3d.:
1788. Ordered that the top of the well shall be covered more
securely than before,’ to prevent the more desperate prisoners
committing suicide (894. 18-27).
One must be fair to the authorities. They did occasionally
do works of mercy. In 1774, for example, ‘ on account of the
distemper now in gaol it 1s dangerous for Mr. Scott the Chaplain
to do his duty there, and it is ordered that his duty be dispensed
with till the next Assizes ’ (894.28). It was something to be
rid of him for a season, for he was always urging the salutary
effects of solitary confinement in the single cell (xx), and in chapel
he was always rubbing it in from his favourite text, ‘ The wages
of sin is death.’ Then, too, in 1780 it is ‘ Ordered that the
Cess Pools of the gaol be removed so as to prevent their draining
into the well as they now do’ (894.32). By the seventeen-
nineties an apothecary is established, with a well-chosen stock
of rhubarb, hysteric drops, fever powders, vomiting powders,
anodyne draughts, balsamic electuaries, gargarisms and worm-
wood. ‘Those poor wretches who were too far gone for medicine
to recover were given a draught of beer or wine to dull the last
agonies. There was bread and cheese at the burying, and a
gallon of beer apiece for the coroner’s jurymen.
Undoubtedly John Fisher was right to give the preference to
transportation, though that was hardly the paradise that Lord
xx. Most chaplains were agreed about this, and for a reason that comes out
at the end of the report of H. Demain, Chaplain of Hertford Gaol in 1843:
‘I have no reason,’ he says, ‘ to change my oft repeated and recorded opinion
of the efficacy of the Separate system. Its value with respect to moral training,
I think, 1s very considerable, and I have not noticed any detrimental physical
or mental effects. I believe it 1s only one of the prejudices of the day to
stigmatize 1t as baneful and inhuman, but only I believe by those who have had
no practical experience of 1ts working. I have noticed a more earnest and
interested attention to my munisterial exhortations as well 1n cells as in chapel ’”
(894. 46).
310 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Ellenborough claimed, ‘a summer airing by an easy migration
to a milder climate.’ At least there was fresh air, a chance to
make good, and the society of men of spirit of whom the little
world of England was not worthy. It has been bravely said
that ‘ the village Hampdens of that generation sleep by the shores
of Botany Bay.” Whenever the wars put a stop to transporta-
tion the authorities got rid of something like a thousand criminals
a year by that temporary expedient of the ‘ hulks,’ which was
continued for eighty years: ‘ 1783. Paid for conveying prisoners
to the Marine Society, £6 4s.: 1799. Paid for transports to the
hulks near Portsmouth, £21 4s. od.’ Well might those Hitchin
men abandon hope who entered there. ‘ Of all the places of
confinement that British history records,’ write Sidney and
Beatrice Webb, ‘ the hulks were the most brutalizing, the most
demoralizing, and the most horrible. The death-rate was
appalling even for the prisons of the period ’” (xxi).
XV
Now let us transport ourselves back to Hitchin and observe
the criminal propensities of the later Georgian period. We may
notice at the outset what an abundance of material there is.
Through our records, at least, one seems to look out upon a
crowded world of rogues, busying themselves with breaking
every letter of the Decalogue, and not even overlooking those
sins of omission which a child once happily defined as ‘ the
sins a man ought to have committed but didn’t.’ One notices
also a lack of respect for the law. ‘The voice of the constable is
not so loud in the streets. The surly citizen no longer touches
his forelock as His Worship, ‘in fair round belly with good
capon lined,’ waddles by. Men have been reading Paine and
Godwin in the taverns. They know what their own class has
managed to do over in France. When they are primed they
can quote whole passages out of The Rights of Man. Ina word,
Jack is as good as his master.
You can trace the growing disrespect both in Petty Sessions
and outside. There have to be more and more commitments
of such as ‘ behave insolently and saucily at petty sessions.’ At
the back of the stuffy court one can hear the scum of the town
xxi. English Prisons under Local Government, 1922, pp 45-46.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 311
slandering those magistrates ‘ who come straight from receiving
the Sacrament and from taking the oath against Transubstantia-
tion to browbeat innocent men.’ One catches them sneering
at the Big-Wig on the Bench as he mutters over to the prisoner
an inaccurate version of what he thought he heard the learned
Clerk whisper to him. One asks oneself in dismay whether
the breed of magistrates is what it was. When Charles Rumball
of Hitchin is summoned in 1785, he has the impudence to send
word to the court that ‘ he is under an engagement to go to Baldock
Fair.” And yet no warrant issues! Those defendants who
condescend to appear are quite ready to bandy words with the
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Bench and abuse the witnesses; or, as the Clerk more politely
puts it, ‘they interchange contumelious words.’ Now§and
again you meet with a prisoner of the old school as obsequious
as any Justice of the Peace could wish. ‘I am very sorry that I
should give you any trouble on my account,’ says John Hobbs
in 1768; ‘I truly repent of what I have done and, as there’s
grace in store for repenting sinners, I make no doubt of finding
mercy from you.’ And so he did (894. 31). ‘I do not wish
to add insult to crime,’ says Richard Palmer in 1842, ‘ by denying
the truth of the statement of the witnesses. I acknowledge
being guilty of the whole I am charged with ’ (894. 45). He and
312 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Hobbs were two in a thousand. Generally there was a total
denial, accompanied with oaths and curses.
In the year 1787, however, an awful visitation befell a man
who was committing perjury at Hitchin. He was swearing
before a magistrate that he had been robbed by a gentleman
who was well known and respected in the parish. ‘The magistrate,
who was better informed, warned him that he was committing
perjury, but the miscreant stood to it, and called God to witness
that, if what he had advanced was not true, he wished that his
jaws might be locked and his flesh rot on his bones. ‘ Shocking
to relate,’ notes William Lucas in his diary, ‘his jaws were
instantly arrested and, after lingering nearly a fortnight in great
anguish, he expired in horrible agonies, his flesh literally rotting
on his bones ’ (24).
Outside the Court, as one might imagine, the law was more
openly manhandled and abused. Here is a typical example.
It is the year 1787. Thomas Marshall of Hitchin, hot and
flushed with the effort of giving evidence against John Everett,
goes round to the Red Hart to have a drink. After a while the
door opens and Everett comes in. The rest may be told in
the words of the complainant. ‘ He did there and then threaten
to do for me and my Character, concluding with Horrid Oaths,
and violently wrenching a stick from me did fling the same at
me and spit in my face. Also, seizing a chair which stood in
the Bar of the Red Hart Inn, he with great violence threw the
same at me, which narrowly missed doing me a Mischief ’ (894. 33).
Here is a second example. It is the year 1808. The coach,
with the Rev. Thomas Bargus inside it, is passing down the
street. Suddenly the parson’s head bobs out of the window.
He has heard a man using obscene language on the King’s highway,
and feels it his duty to order the driver to stop so that he may
take the man’s name and reprove him for his conduct. ‘ Who
are your’ roars out the offender, John Kirby. ‘ A magistrate
for the county of Hertford,’ comes the stiff reply. ‘ ‘Then damn
your soul to Hell,’ replies Kirby, ‘we don’t want any calves’
heads here.” With that the coach moves on, and the rest of
Kirby’s language is drowned in the clatter of the horses and the
rumble of the wheels (72. 2. 215).
And here is the third example. It is the year 1816. James
Floyd is carting Edward Glazebrook and James Brinkley, two
rogues and vagabonds, from Hitchin to Hertford Prison. Follow-
THE RED HART GATEWAY
From a painting by Wilham H Thorp, 1925
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 313
ing hard after them comes William Shaw, a friend of the aforesaid
rogues. He has a heavy bludgeon in his hand. As he comes
alongside the cart, he brandishes his weapon at Floyd and
proposes to cut his ‘ bloody head ’ off. Whilst Floyd’s attention
is thus distracted, Glazebrook leaps out of the cart and pulls
out a knife which he has secreted in his clothes. Floyd leaps
after him and succeeds in taking hold of his arm, but Glazebrook,
* attempting with his knife to cut his arm off,’ gets away (894. 40).
XVI
Contempt of authority. That is the first thing one remarks
about this later Georgian era. The second is the decline in
the ‘art and mystery’ of those who followed the criminal
profession. Whereas aforetime their deeds were done izmpetuose,
or on the inspiration of Bacchus, or out of pure bedevilment
without hope of reward, now they are become basely utilitarian.
In motive, in skill, in taste the standards have gone down.
Occasionally one is gratified to see some artistic sensibility at
work. In 1808 Harriet Tyler of Hitchin risks everything to be
able to wear ‘ a pair of silk stockings.’ One who is the son of a
Churchwarden, and the grandson of a Rector, risks his respect-
able soul to own ‘a silver snuff-box.’ Priscilla Dauban, in 1829,
displays the unerring taste she inherits from her ancestors in
France by ‘ collecting ’ a yellow silk handkerchief, an embroidered
apron and some cambric muslin. John Brown, 1832, supplies
himself with ‘2 books of common prayer.’ William Webb,
1839, out of the pure love of music, acquires ‘ 2 flutes a Flageolet
and a music stand, the property of one Charles Times ’ (894. 44-8).
But for the most part ‘ their God was their belly ’; or shall
we say more charitably that they stole because they starved?
If we may trust the figures of Hilaire Belloc ‘ no less than 93 per
cent. of criminals suffer from metagrobolization of the hyper-
dromedaries, which is scientist Greek for the consequences of not
having enough to eat.” However that may be, it is safe to say
that here at Hitchin between 1780 and 1830 half the population
was hungry and had not wherewithal to eat. Can you do other
than pity those famine-stricken people who turned thieves at
the sight of ‘ some pickle-pork and three pints of ale,’ or ‘ 2 Ibs.
of meat called mutton,’ or ‘5 cakes of gingerbread’? When
the quartern loaf rose to 1s. 5d. in 1795, can you wonder at that
314 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
‘great concourse of people in the market-place and parading
the streets, insisting that the price of bread be lowered ’; or at
William Warner and others ‘ assembling together and threatening
if their wages were not increased they would demolish the houses ’
of those who employed them at such cruel rates (894. 36)?
The pity of it was that when these starvelings stole they never
knew when to stop. That is why so many lingered over their
plunder and were caught. For example, Robert Thorogood,
who went out to steal some beer 1n 1775, was not content with a
quart, but would take ‘a pail of it.’ No wonder his speech
and his steps betrayed him! Again, in 1817, a sailor broke
into the house of William Wilshere and, for his own use on leave,
appropriated a hat and a quantity of handkerchiefs and gloves
which he concealed in the crown of the said hat. As he was
walking off with the hat upon his head, he caught sight of another
hat in the hall, and seized that also—a piece of folly which was
bound to give him away. Evenaslow-witted Headborough could
tell that something was amiss when he saw a sailor lurching down
the street with one pot-hat perched upon his curly head and
another held furtively in his free hand. ‘There was a chase up
Pound Lane into the Bedford Road, and five miles along the
straight to Henlow, where the gallant seaman, making heavy
weather of it and carrying too much in the top-gallants, hove to
and surrendered at discretion (894. 41).
For a third example we will bring up Edwin Pateman and
William Shepherd of Hitchin, who shortly before Christmas,
1832, resolved to feast themselves at the expense of a rich fish-
monger, William Burrell. His shop, which they rifled whilst
he was revelling at the Swan, yielded ‘ half a barrel of herrings,
2 bushels of apples, and 1 bushel of oysters.’ About midnight
they took the best of these to a barn in Hollow Lane and then
began the feast. But no sooner were they seated than they
discovered John Sanders waking up from a drunken sleep close
beside them on the straw. ‘ If you say anything in the morning,’
they threatened, ‘ we'll kill you.” They then proceeded with their
banquet. Afterwards, as they came out, another loafer hiding
in the straw overheard them say, ‘ Those were dam good herrings.’
A little caution, a sharing of the spoil, and they would not have
spent an unpeaceful Christmas of ill will in the House of Correc-
tion (894. 43).
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 315
XVIT
Another well-known feature of the late Georgian period is
the severity and inequality of the punishments inflicted. It is as
though the magistrates were striving to recover their diminished
authority by a reign of terror (xxii). Think of it! Three years’
ballast-heaving ‘ for stealing a pair of braces,’ and seven years’
transportation ‘ for stealing a pair of worsted stockings.’ Does
it not make one mourn for ‘ man’s inhumanity to man’? Down
at West Mill, Whittingstall is profiteering to the extent of £50,000
out of the wars with France; yet he is mean enough to prosecute
one of his labourers for taking a few beans. Jane Child, grocer
of Bucklersbury, Hitchin, 1774, is doing a roaring trade. Eliza-
beth, the wife of John Parr, comes into the shop and calls for an
ounce of nutmegs. Whilst the grocer is packing these Elizabeth
picks up a few more and slips them into her pocket; does it
clumsily and is detected. She ‘ offers the said Jane Child £5 or
a set of china not to prosecute.’ But Jane is obdurate. The
constable is sent for. The law is invoked. ‘ The sentence is
that you be publicly whipped next Saturday and imprisoned in
Bridewell three months to hard labour ’ (72. 2. 129, 133).
Property, as you see, is savagely protected, but what little
account is paid to offences against the body in that rough-and-
tumble age! As for a woman’s honour, why that is a mere
feather in the scales of justice. De minimis non curat lex. You
can tell the value set upon it by its order in the composite indict-
ments: e.g.‘ for robbing Sarah Whitless of 14d., a pair of pumps,’
and, as it were thrown in, ‘committing a rape on her.’ You
can tell it even better by those two cases which stand, one beneath
the other, on the Roll for 1770: ‘ Indictment of Samuel Harris
for attempting to ravish Sarah Hilyard against her will. Pleaded
guilty and fined 6s. 8d. Indictment of John Lee for stealing a
waggoner’s whip, value one shilling, in Hitchin market. Ordered
to be transported for seven years ” (72. 2. 116).
Against these stony-hearted sentences you must set the fact
that so many criminals went free. Nor is that surprising. With
no hue and cry as of old, and no detective service as at present,
xxu1. Professor Holdsworth notes: ‘The severity you speak of was largely
due to the defective police system. A nation cursed with a weak government
will begin to fear 1ts criminals; and fear, as Gardiner has said,1s the parent
of cruelty.’ See Holdsworth, op cit., v. 196, and Blackstone’s Commentaries,
iv. 10, 18, 239.
316 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
offences inevitably passed into the limbo of ‘ undivulged crimes,
unwhipped of justice,’ felonies unfathomed and murder mysteries.
Look at that lank and leaden-eyed man, with his hat ‘ bangled ’
or slouched over his head. Do you see how his face is marred
by the smallpox and ‘ sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought ’?
And do you see that clutch of vellum-clad books under his arm?
Now he turns into Golden Square and enters the Church School,
where in this year of grace 1750 he is an usher. No one knows
anything about him, where he came from or who his people
were; but they say he is a profound scholar, poring long past
midnight over his tomes of Celtic, Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
The other masters speak almost with awe of that Comparative
Lexicon of all European tongues which he is said to be compiling.
Who would guess that this man of letters had any guilty
secret lurking in his breast? Yet why the massive lock to his
bedroom door and the massive bar of iron framed across it from
inside, still visible to this day? Away from his books he seems
not the least of a pedant. ‘There is a smile for any ragamufhin
he encounters in the street, and as for animals, especially wild
animals, he seems to worship them (xxiu). It is true he goes
solitary, and walks by unfrequented ways. But, meet him where
you may, in Wain Wood or out on Mardley Heath or Wilbury
Hills, how happily absorbed he 1s in his botanical or geological
pursuits! Are these the traits of a murderer?
Look at him again. He is doing his duty and sitting with
his boys in St. Mary’s Church. The Rev. Pilkington Morgan,
Master of Arts and Vicar of Hitchin, is in the pulpit. He is
preaching a course of sermons on Divine Retribution. His
text this time is taken from the words, ‘ For we trust we have a
good conscience.’ Last Sunday it was, ‘ How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out.” The Sunday
before that it was, ‘ The ways of man are before the eyes of the
Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.’ Do you hear what he is
saying: ‘ Let us examine to see if there be any way of wickedness
in us. . . . It is for want of calling themselves to a strict account
for their actions that very wicked men seem as secure and easy
to themselves as if their conscience was well with them and they
xxui. ‘I used to observe him,’ says the Rev. Anthony Hinton, ‘ when he
was walking with me in the Botanic Gardens in Chelsea. Frequently he
would stoop down and carefully remove a snail or a worm out of the path to
prevent their being destroyed. Was he perhaps hoping to atone for the murder
he had perpetrated by showing mercy to every animal? ’”
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 317
had nothing to dread. . . . Yet it is a false and delusive peace
of mind which will fail them when they stand in the most need of
it at the hour of death and in the day of judgment’ (goo. 1.131-177).
Surely, if this man’s conscience really smote him, he would
stand up in the face of the congregation and confess his sins!
‘How could he share in childish prayer
Or join in Evening Hymn?’
His countenance betrays nothing; it 1s as calm as those of the
boys beside him; yet this man, if you have not already guessed
it, is Eugene Aram (xxiv).
And here is another mystery that remains a mystery unto
this day. It is February 1800, a year of war and rumours of
war, of revolutions and rumours of revolution; a time of dearth
and discontent, when the least spark of sedition might set the
whole of England aflame. It is ‘ past twelve o’clock and a foul
night.” Old Granter, the town constable, stumbles for a last
look into the cobbled Market Place, blinks about him by the
feeble light of his lanthorn, and ‘so to bed.” Omnibus Benae!
The landlord of the Swan as he shuts his casement thinks
that he sees someone slinking across the square, and hears a
suspicious tapping on the Bell House; but it is too late to go
downstairs and, anyway, it is no affair of his. In the morning,
however, it was everyone’s affair. Tom, Dick, and Harry,
xxiv. No one, I think, has ever traced Aram’s itinerary from Knares-
borough to the gallows. Was 1t conscience, which makes cowards of us all,
or his wandering scholar’s spirit, which drove him on from one school to
another until that dread morning of August 19, 1758, when, as usher of a
school at King’s Lynn, he was arrested The rest of the story everybody
knows, down to the ghastly description of his wife as she picks up the bones
that fall one after another from the gibbet, and of his children who pick up a
penny or two showing strangers where their father’s body was hanged 1n
chains. It.is a pity that Aram has left so few traces of his residence at Hitchin.
The entries 1n our manuscript diaries and histories are ‘ brief and curst,’ as
though the writers were ashamed of the connection. But some evidently
could have said things ‘an they would.’ Theodore Lucas, who died in his
ninetieth year 1n 1927, told me that Bulwer Lytton, hearing of the Aram and
Hitchin association, came here 1n 1830 to gather material for the writing of his
novel, and that William Lucas was able to furnish him with many particulars
that had come first-hand from his grandfather. Probably, however, the
novelist’s apotheosis of the murderer 1s all his own. John Ransom had been
a pupil at Church House in Eugene Aram’s time, but he could never be brought
to speak of him When I first came to Hitchin in 1901 the narrow passage
from the churchyard into High Street was still being called Aram’s Alley by
old people, and I knew one woman who would never go that way because, she
said, 1t was haunted by Aram’s ghost.
318 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
constable, churchwarden, and squire, are all elbowing one another
to get nearer to the inflammatory handbill which someone had
nailed up in the night: ‘ ADVICE TO ALL POOR TRADESMEN AND
LABOURERS. With one consent lay asside and meet together in
a Body and see whats to be Don in this Case, for your work,
all you can Doe, will not support you and your famelly. Your
vile oppressors see how they use ye, what yoke of bondage you
are brought under; be not afraid of horse nor standing Arms
[this is a cut at the Hitchin Volunteers] but come forth with
Courage and Resolution. If you give way to those Villins you
will always be bound under their chaigns wherein your liberty
and Freedom is intirely lost. Nothings to be done without you
take this step. Some may pertend to smoth and calm you, for
Hares our Soupmaker may come with Doctrine of fine speeches,
as keeping a clean house and the wife to give a smile; send him
to where he came from. When whe whant him we will send for
him. If nothing better can be Don than allready is, I’d wish
every man to leave his famelly and let the damned Heathen Doe
as they will, for why should whe starve in a land where theres
Plenty. Neverthemore, as a well wisher Gop BLEss THE KING! ’
Whose handwriting is it, and whose is the misspelling?
When is the massacre to be? Willall the magistrates and employers
of labour and shopkeepers and clergy and income-tax officers,
their wives and their children, be murdered in their beds?
These are the questions that tremble on everybody’s lips.
To make a show of confidence the authorities call up the special
constables and the Loyal Volunteers. Rewards are placarded
about the town in the names of the Vicar and Churchwardens,
in that of William Wilshere, as Captain of the Hitchin Loyal
Volunteers, in that of His Majesty, King George III. But no
one comes forward or turns King’s evidence. No one discovers,
and no one will ever discover, the lost leader of the Hitchin
Revolution.
XVITI
A few months later two bodies were brought to light on
Windmill Hill, buried face downwards and only three feet deep (15).
Here was another mystery. Were these the first victims of ‘ the
hidden hand,’ or had they something to do with the bank-notes
of considerable value which were found concealed on the same
hill not long before? Once again the magistrates took counsel
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 319
together, and as usual came to no conclusion. In 1818, however,
the town itself took counsel together in Vestry assembled. Some
trenchant words were uttered about the evil reputation of the
parish and the slackness of the constables: ‘It appearing to
this vestry that there is a great deal of disorderly and immoral
practices in the Streets of this Town in the evening, Ordered
that the Constables and Headboroughs be directed to apprehend
and hale before a magistrate all disorderly persons to be dealt
with according to law.’ This was all very well, as the Head-
boroughs pointed out, but what about the Folly (xxv) and what
about Hollow Lane and Dead Street, which were known as the
St. Giles of Hitchin? For years no constable had dared to
show his face in that quarter of the town. The King’s writ
did not run there, nor any magistrate’s summons. It was, as
Cobbett used to say, ‘ a very rascally spot of earth.’ The Vestry,
however, was bent upon carrying out its resolution. If these
yards and courts and slums were the breeding-place of thieves
and the sanctuary of murderers, all the more reason why the
stronghold should be stormed. Every day, so it was decreed,
the constables armed with sword-sticks were to walk up and down
this den of iniquity (xxv); and every night as many as nine special
constables (xxvii), marching together and armed with staves,
were to quell disorder and keep the peace. To make room for
the felons they arrested, the Bridewell was to be rebuilt, and the
walls surrounding it made twelve feet high.
It was an excellent plan of campaign, vigorously carried out
and successful beyond expectation. By the time the next Vestry
came round Dead Street was like a city of the dead, and Hollow
Lane echoed only with the tramp of armed men. After six stifling
and memorable months the Petty Sessions sank once more into
insignificance, and the empty Bridewell with its towering wall
seemed to respectable ratepayers a gigantic folly. Hutchin had
‘ purged its conscience from dead works,’ and become a decent,
God-fearing and law-abiding town.
xxv. A Hitchin magistrate who proposed to build a Mission Hall for the
Folly in 1848 informed the Bishop that the inhabitants of that district ‘ are
living as heathen, unbaptized and unmarried.’
xxvi. One of the sword-sticks they used can be seen 1n Letchworth Museum,
Exhibit No. 1735.
xxvu. In 1815, at a Special Sessions held in William Wilshere’s house, as
many as eighty special constables had been sworn in. ‘Their expenses were,
for the most part,met by private subscription. W1llam Lucas 1n his accounts
puts down, ‘ To Cash subscribed towards an added nightly watch, {1 18. od.’
320 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
There have been sporadic outbreaks since then, of course,
for sudden conversions make for sudden lapses. But there is an
air of social or political necessity about Victorian crime which
takes much of its viciousness away. ‘Those who were caught body-
snatching here at St. Mary’s in the twenties were not thinking
of committing sacrilege. They were in dire want of the {9
which the better sort of corpses brought (xxvii). ‘Those horny-
handed wielders of the flail who broke up the threshing-machines
in the forties did so from a blind instinct of self-preservation ;
they felt that one or the other—the man or the machine—had to
be destroyed. ‘Those women who stole the links of ‘ broad
twist plait ’ in the fifties did so because their husbands were out
of work and their children were clamouring for bread.
Again, there is a corresponding air of clemency, or the
beginnings of clemency, in the punishments of this more
enlightened period. For some years public opinion had been
hardening against the capital penalty—so wantonly inflicted (xxix).
When the common gallows of the county fell down from old
age and hard use in 1794, it was ‘ ordered that a new movable
gallows be made for the use of the county, to be put up and used
from time to time as may be necessary ’ (Herts Q.S.0.B., March 1).
That brought the question nearer home. An execution at Hertford
had been a public spectacle; there was something impersonal
about it. The culprit belonged only to the law. But to watch
one’s fellow-townsman being tossed into eternity by his cottage
door and with his children looking on made many a man shudder
and many a neighbour weep. You can tell what passed through
the mind of Isaac Clark of Hitchin in 1817 as he looked at them
hanging young William Moles, aged only seventeen, for setting
some stacks on fire; he wrote it down afterwards and printed it in
the town: Clemens and Severus, or Considerations on the Policy
xxvin. Before the churchyard was enclosed in 1827 the special constables
sat up many a night in the church porch waiting for these body-snatchers.
W. C. Carter used to speak to me with some pride of his grandfather, who,
when one of these desecrators gave him the slip, pursued him 1n the half-light
through the town, overtook him three mules out in Hitch Wood, bound him,
lifted him into a dog-cart, and brought him back in triumph to the Bridewell.
The famuly still preserves the certificate of discharge ‘ from all and all manner of
parish or ward offices within the parish of Hitchin,’ which he received in
consequence under ro William III, c. 12. These certificates, or ‘ Tyburn
Tickets ’ as they came to be called, were assignable, and rich men, wishing to
avoid onerous duties, would give as much as £30 for one.
xxix. In 1811 William Lucas gives ‘ cash to a Society for diffusion of
knowledge respecting the punishment of death, £2 2s. od.’ (686).
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 321
and Reasonableness of Capital Punishments. But it was the
indecency and not the cruelty of it that infuriated him: ‘ So
far from the solemnity of such spectacles having any lasting effect
upon the minds of the vulgar, their conduct on such occasions
has ere the close of the day exhibited disgraceful scenes of riot
and intemperance; men and women have been seen talking and
laughing and children playing when collected to witness these
awful spectacles.’ It is just one more testimony to the truth of
Hogarth’s famous drawing, which fronts this page.
XIX
Slowly—how slowly !—came the statutes which repealed the
extreme penalty for trivial offences; but on this errand of mercy
the judges outran the law. It was still, in the twenties, a ‘ high
misdemeanour to take a mutton ’; but sheep-stealers were not so
inevitably condemned to swing. So with the magistrates in
Petty Sessions. They also began to see that their office was
remedial as well as punitive, that they ought to show some pity
in the name of justice. “Tis small as a wren’s eye as yet, but it
is there, a faint, far-off perception of the psychology of crime.
It leads some of them to found a Juvenile Delinquent Society as
an early experiment in Probation; others to turn a compassionate,
blind eye upon the failings of adults. ‘ The late warm weather,’
writes one of our magistrates to the Clerk of the Peace in extenua-
tion of a long calendar, ‘has had an effect upon some of my
neighbours.’ ‘That friendly attempt at understanding would have
been impossible to ‘ the sad-eyed Justice with his surly hum’
of the century before. So wouid their new way of dealing with
the ‘ divers unhappy differences ’ between man and wife. When
John Chambers came before them, charged with ‘ being a
matriaged man and absenting himself from his family,’ they
declined to send him to prison (how could that possibly help ?),
but found the prodigal work, and kept him co it, until he came
to his senses (xxx) (894. 38).
It was this humanitarian instinct that led to the abolition of
some brutal forms of punishment. After 1817 no more women
xxx. Their chivalrous interventions on behalf of wronged or forsaken wives
led to their being pestered beyond endurance. Here is a letter which a Hitchin
magistrate received in 1851: ‘ I hear you are so kind to Lad: 3 who don’t like
their Husbands. I have sucha bad one. He takes all my fortune, about £500
a year, and gives me but £40. Do protect me and take me under your roof.’
VOL. IT. x
322 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
were ‘ publicly flogged until their backs be bloody ’ (59 Geo. III,
c. go). The last man to be publicly whipped was Richard Hill,
convicted that same year ‘ for stealing eight pairs of cotton web
braces.’ A little while and the stocks also were to go. ‘They
served some little purpose for drunks and disorderlies, who, after
their night out, spent a day in ‘ the broad noon of public scorn.’
But they were coming to be regarded as mere laughing-stocks.
You can tell that from the comic-cuts of the fifties, in which the
captive is seen amusing himself with a fiddle, and a pot-boy
approaching with a foaming mug of ale. Once upon a time there
stood a board above our stocks with this couplet painted upon it :-—
‘ He that his God doth feare
Will not come here.’
That was a maxim far too good to last. One Gunpowder
‘Treason night it was hoisted alongside the effigy of Guy Fawkes
in the Market Square, and so, pointing its moral to the last, it
perished like a martyr in the flames. 'The stocks themselves did
notlongsurvive. By 1855 they were upon their last legs. William
Maylin of Walsworth Hamlet in Hitchin, who lived to be a hundred,
‘remembered a man with a wooden leg, called Armstrong, who
was put in the stocks; and he wriggled and wriggled till he finally
slipped out, leaving his wooden leg behind.’ It came in useful,
with what was left of the stocks, on the following 5th of November.
Whipping-posts, ducking-stools, stocks—one after another
these relics of barbarism fell. Only the Bridewell remained, and
that in spite of petitions of the townsmen and recommendations
of the magistrates for its removal. Now and again it served a
turn. As late as 1874 the Hitchin Bench sentenced a man for
three months for stealing one herring. But the Keeper’s office
was almost a sinecure. He had, indeed, a dangerous amount of
time upon his hands. On Saturday night, the rst of December,
1838, Keeper Benjamin Batten was observed in the beerhouse
of Squire Day of Hitchin long past midnight and well into
Sunday morning, drinking and playing cards in company with
other men, including two apprentices under twenty years of age.
‘It is the opinion of the Justices that the said Benjamin Batten’s
conduct is highly unbecoming a person holding his office and
disqualifies him from executing the duties of it. They therefore
beg leave to submit the propriety of his removal to the considera-
tion of the magistrates at Quarter Sessions ’ (72. 2. 393).
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 323
Batten’s successor had the same easygoing nature, but he
had more sense. He knew just where he ought to be, and he
knew, even better, where he ought not to be. On one occasion
he was seen hurrying away from Butts Close, where a parish
riot was in progress. ‘ What’s the matter?’ asked one who met
him. ‘ Oh, nothing,’ replied the constable, ‘ only a fight going
on over there.’ ‘ But surely,’ urged the other, ‘ it’s your duty to
try and stop it?” ‘ Not a bit,’ exclaimed the constable, ‘ let ’em
fight, I say, let ’em all fight. It will get rid of some of their bad
blood.’
ARMSTRONG
Some wooden-headed constables had not the same tact in
* making themselves to be absent ’; but they could easily be tricked.
One remembers in this connection a fine feat of arms accomplished
by the Herts Yeomanry when they mustered at Hitchin in 1856.
Cumbering the Market Place at that time there were two ancient
and ill-conditioned houses belonging to the parish of ‘Tewin,
which the overseers of that parish refused on any terms to sell.
The townspeople grew impatient, but were at a loss to know how
to proceed. In that nick of time the O.C. of the Yeomanry
appeared upon the scene. After a brief reconnoitre, his clear-cut,
military mind was made up. ‘ And you have endured these
shambles all this time,’ he exclaimed, ‘ go and fetch me some
324 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
ropes.” ‘ But what about the police?’ some timorous citizen
inquired. ‘ You can leave them to me,’ he said. Whereupon
he dispatched his corporal to the police station to say that there
was a disturbance at the Moorhen and a serious accident at the
railway station, both of which needed their immediate attention.
The coast being clear, ropes were then attached to the half-
timbers and chimney-stacks of the rickety old shanties ; the towns-
men pulled with a will; the Yeomanry pulled with a weight;
‘ Pull, you lazy devils,’ roared the Captain. Something sighed,
something moaned ; and then, with a loud cry the ancient buildings
yielded up the ghost. Amidst the cheers of the populace—
cheers that reached the bewildered policemen at the Moorhen
and at the railway station—the lifeless tenements fell, and great
was the fall thereof.
As Charles Paternoster came out of his shop the next morning
to survey the scene the Squire of Ickleford rode into the square.
‘What have you been doing?’ he inquired. Paternoster shook
his head. ‘ We are a quiet people, sir,’ he said, ‘ we live in a
quiet town, and are not used to such doings as took place here
last night. ‘They called it the taking of Sebastopol, sir.’
XX
This was one of the last crimes we committed in the grand
manner. Before long the moral energy of Victorian statesmen
began to hedge the whole of life about with pains and penalties,
until ‘ the truly free Englishman,’ as Sydney Smith complained,
‘walked about covered with licences.’ Why won’t our grand-
mother, the State, leave us innocent children alone? It is just
the same protest that old Burton raised in the seventeenth century
against King James’s Council: ‘ Ut olim flagitus, sic nunc legibus
laboramus—as in times past we were sicke of offences so now are
we of lawes.’ They do not give any criminal a sporting chance;
and as for understanding them, it is beyond the wits of those who
make them and those who administer them. In his early,
unregenerate days at Hitchin, Henry Hawkins, better known
afterwards as Sir Henry or Lord Brampton, used to quote Goethe
in his own defence: ‘ If a man set out to study all the laws, he
will have no time left to transgress them.’ Hawkins certainly
found time, and though he scandalized the town and alienated
his father, he gained a first-hand knowledge of human depravity
MR. JUSTICE HAWKINS
rR
From a painting by George Richmond RA
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 325
that was to stand him in good stead when he became a judge (xxxi).
In 1850 a letter was received by the Herts Mercury, dated from
the residence of John Hawkins of Hitchin and signed in his
well-known hand. It announced the sudden and lamentable
death of John Curling, Chairman of the Hitchin Bench. The
editor accordingly inserted a solemn obituary notice in the next
issue of his paper. Four days later he was astounded to hear
that Curling was presiding as usual at the Hitchin Petty Sessions.
‘We have been compelled,’ he writes the following week, ‘ to
reject all announcements of births, marriages and deaths coming
from Hitchin unless authenticated by some person known to
us. Our only protection against these forgeries is to refuse all
communications which do not come through our agents, Messrs.
Paternoster.’
Henry Hawkins, who committed that ‘ outrage on decency,’
was perhaps our last creative artist. You find no taint of personal
advantage in anything he sets his hand todo. Merely the delight
of planning, with almost diabolical ingenuity and immunity,
something that would shock his respectable neighbours out of
their torpor and self-complacency. ‘The others, in comparison
with him, are but the creatures of their age. One must admire
the inventiveness of that indignant spirit who, weary of the
usual obscenities, called his neighbour ‘ an impudent, incestuous,
epicurial Atheist.” As a mouth-filling expletive, that was not
dear at half a crown and costs. But, after all, it is only education
beginning to make itself felt. Again, one observes the case of a
clergyman who travelled to Hitchin in 1851 in order to take the
Sunday services at Ickleford. He was fined £5 and costs by the
Hitchin magistrates for riding in a first-class carriage with a
second-class ticket, and for assaulting the constable who found
it out (894. 42). That is just one more illustration of what
the historians are now agreed to call the Railway Era (xxxii).
xxxi. Some of his local escapades will appear under the life of John Hawkins
in the companion volume of Hitchin Worthtes. I have an especial regard for
Henry Hawkins as I work as a solicitor in the room he once occupied 1n his
father’s office, and I use reports which belonged to him and which bear his
book-plate still. It1s unfortunate that The Renumscences of Sir Henry Hawkins
by Richard Harris, K.C., published 1n 1904, should give so few particulars of
his wild but very entertaining youth, and such an insufficient record of his real
ability as a learned judge.
xxxii. Francis Lucas describes another: ‘ Ward Asplin of Bucklersbury
was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment with hard labour for acting as best
man at the marriage of the bigamist Wilcox with Richard Hull’s niece. Wahlcox
326 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
It was the intention of the author to carry his catalogue of
crime up to the present day, for after twenty years’ attendance
at the Hitchin Bench, as the Clerk of the Clerk of the Justices,
he is peculiarly well fitted to expose the frailties of his fellow towns-
men. But the prudent publisher has entreated him to forgo
these risky modern allusions, citing the authority of Sir Walter
Raleigh that ‘ whosoever in writing a History shall follow Truth
too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth.’ It is a
pity, for it means that the list, prepared by the author, of those
people in his parish who are ‘ deserving to be hanged ’ must be
left in the obscurity of manuscript.
Nor even, at the end of this long chapter, can any moral
be drawn. It was a famous saying of Dr. William Gordon,
one of our Hitchin historians, that ‘the Instructions that events
afford are the Soul of history.” But we cannot linger to point
the lesson of these evil doings: their inevitable issues, the doubtful
gain of pleasure, the certain loss of soul. ‘They must speak for
themselves, and make their own monitions. ‘If these do not
move us,’ as Wesley used to say, ‘ we are asleep in the Devil’s
arms.’
was overtaken at the Hitchin station 1n the afternoon of his wedding-day just
as the train which was to carry him and his bride was about to start. He was
found to be very much intoxicated. Was sentenced for seven years ’ (966. 192),
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WILLS AND TESTAMENTS (i)
zs T used to be said by John Skynner of
Hitchin, who in 1591 founded the firm
of solicitors which passed through the
Drapers, Tristrams, Wilsheres and Eades
into the hands of Messrs. Hawkins & Co.,
that nowhere does the character of a man
come out more conspicuously than in the
making of his will. Not only have you
the distribution of his worldly goods: his
personal and household stuff, his tools
and stock-in-trade, his lands and tenements, but, especially
in the earlier wills, the delineation of the man himself: his
statement of belief, his pride and prejudice, his remorse and
the recompense he pays, all summed up with that intensity
of vision which comes to a man who is about to die. We
may allow Skynner to give his opinion on this matter; for
he was in practice seventy years. I who am a humble con-
veyancer in his firm and have drawn, and served as an
executor for, so many Hitchin wills may be allowed to
concur in that most just opinion. Moreover, it is one which
as an historian also I share with my more learned brethren.
Listen to what Professor Skeel says in her treatise on Medieval
Wills: ‘ Their interest is manifold. They bring us into close
touch with the men and women of the past. They appeal to
the genealogist, who finds in them information that is often not
procurable elsewhere. ‘They supply information to the ecclesiasti-
cal historian, the economic and social historian, the antiquarian,
the topographer, the philologist. There is hardly a side of
medieval life that cannot be illustrated by wills ’ (History, vol. x,
Pp. 300-310).
Now let us examine the Hitchin wills, of which some hundreds
survive amongst the papers of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
and the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon at Somerset House and
i. I have to thank Canon C. W. Foster, F.S.A., editor inter alia of
Lincoln Wills 1271-1530, and Dr. E:leen Power for acting as ‘ executors,
overseers and supervisors ’ to the following pages. Also the officials at the
Literary Search Department, Somerset House, and those at the Peterborough
Probate Registry for valuable assistance.
328 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
in the Probate Registry of Peterborough (ii); and we shall see for
ourselves how far they justify the high opinions we have cited.
First and foremost—for we shall do wisely to follow the tradi-
tional order of will-making—there comes the testator’s recital
of his bodily condition, his testamentary capacity, and the reason
for the making of his will. ‘This was thought important; for,
as that great lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, observed, ‘few men
pinched with the messengers of death have a disposing memory ’;
and disappointed legatees are always willing to bring charges
of undue influence against those who have been preferred. ‘Thus
Ralph Audley, 1534, lets it be known, ‘ laudes be to God,’ that
he is ‘ parfitt in mynde and hole in bodye’ (iii), William
Sheperde, 1557, ‘ steward to the right honourable Lorde Cobham,’
is ‘ sicke in bodie and dreddinge the uncerteyne houre of death,’
but for all that he is ‘ perfecte of remembrance.’ Robert Hurste,
1627, calls to mind ‘the manie dangers and hazards to which
mankind is subject,’ and ‘ considers withall that he ought to be
in readiness with all joy and gladness to imbrace the visitation
of the Almighty God.’ John Pawpitt, 1655, is much more
pathetically long-winded in the prologue to his will: ‘ Considering
that all flesh is but as grasse and the glory thereof as the flowers
of the field, and that we have noe continuance or dwelling Citty
here in this world, but that we must dye when it pleaseth God,
and finding through the weakness of my body that death doth
as it were knocke att my dore to call me out of this miserable
world, wherein my soule is kept as a prisoner in my naturall
body, with a most willing heart and minde I doe render into the
hands of my creator and heavenly father my soule which he of his
fatherly goodness gave unto me at suche tyme as he fashioned
me in my mother’s wombe and hope to be saved in and by and
through the meritts of Jesus Christ my only Lord and Saviour,
and to be made partaker of the Kingdome of Glory.’
ii. The early P.C.C. wills relating to Hitchin can be traced easily enough
from the indices printed by the British Record Society. Of the Archdeaconry
of Huntingdon wills at Somerset House, which date from 1479 onwards, there
are twenty-three volumes with manuscript indices. The remaining group of
the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon wills at Peterborough, ranging from 1479-
1600, are contained in eighteen volumes. "There 1s a printed index of the
whole by W. M. Noble. A separate index of the Hitchin wills proved 1n the
court of the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon has been made by Reginald L. Hine,
and 1s, with the transcripts of 200 Hitchin wills, at the service of serious students.
ui. The references to all the wills cited in this chapter are to be found in
the classified bibliography, No. 909, where the names of the testators are
printed in alphabetical order.
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 329
Ten years later, 1665, Hitchin is visited by the Great Plague.
One after another the people rush into Ralph Skynner’s office to
make their wills, which he begins for them with that significant
phrase, ‘ Now in this frail time of mortality.” Some would-be
testators are smitten before they have time to sign. Here, for
example, is the will of Richard Swansley, who as parish clerk
ought to have been up and doing, but could only gasp out his
wishes to those terrified people who stood about his bed: ‘ Memo-
randum that about the 25th September, 1665, Richard Swansley,
the parishe Clerke, being visited by the pestilence in his house
and very sicke and weak in body with the sayd desease, did
declare his last will and testament nuncupative in these words,
or the like in effect, viz. he speaking to William Swansley his
brother who was then present in the house with him sayd, “ I
will that you shall have all the goods which I have to take all and
pay all,’’ but, being informed that the sayd William was fallen
desperately sicke, he then declared his minde in these words,
** I will that John Swansley my brother and Rebecca the wife of
William my brother shall be my executors and take all my goods
and parte them betwixt them without any disturbance.” ...
All this he did declare with an intent that it should stand for his
last will and testament in the presence of Jane Marshall the
keeper of him in the sayd sicknesse.’
In the modern wills the terror of death and the anxiety of
soul are much less evident. Francis Thatcher, 1720, is moved
to become a testator simply ‘ for the quieting of my mind and
for the settling of my temporall affaires and for the avoiding
disputes and differences after my decease.’ John Lovell, 1766,
‘ beying in good senses but in a very mideling state of helth,
by the healp of God, make my one [own] last will.’ His own is
a poor thing, but then he cannot afford the legal aid of Lawrence,
or, as he styled himself, Law. Times. The Registrar forgives
the misspellings as soon as his fees are paid and the home-made
will is proved.
II
Next in order comes the bequest of the soul with its accompany-
ing statement of belief. This part of the will was frequently
written in Latin, the rest of the will with its secular bequests
being written in English. Here is the common form adopted
in medieval days: ‘ I bequeth my soule unto almightye god and
330 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
to all the holy company in hevyn.’ In course of time, however,
the form has to be altered to suit the religious innovations of the
age. By the end of the fifteenth century ‘ oure blissed lady
saint Mary the Virgyne his glorious modre ’ is joined as legatee.
After the Reformation the ‘ holy company of heaven ’ and ‘ oure
blissed lady ’ are cut out; testators put their trust in ‘ the death
and passion of Jesus Christe,’ or throw themselves upon the
mercy of ‘the Comforter.’ Here, for example, is the will of
Thomas Chapman, 1581, the father of George Chapman, the
Elizabethan poet: ‘I Thomas Chapman of Hitchin, Yeoman,
commit my sowle into the hands of God the Father Almightye my
creator, to Jhesus Christ his dere sonne my alone saviour and
redeemer, and to the holy ghost his elect spiritt my comforter
and sanctifier three distinct persons and one eternall almightie
and ever lovinge God, most assuredly trustinge in the mercy and
favour of God through the only deathe passion and resurrection
of Jhesus Christ by faith in his blood to have free pardon and
full forgiveness of all my sinnes.’ ‘That becomes the common
form for another hundred years, though some Christian souls
like Elizabeth Docwra, 1616, go a step farther and ‘ expect an
entrance to the fruition of eternall happiness.’ After the seven-
teenth century, however, this religious testimony begins to wane.
More wills are being drawn by the lawyers and fewer by the priests.
Whatever the testators or their advisers believed or expected in
the next world they kept to themselves. For example, John
Wilson, the friend of Bunyan and the first pastor of the Hitchin
Baptists, writing his own will in 1712,is anxious about his books,
but makes no confession of faith. He knows Him whom he hath
believed and that is enough. Edward Hickman, the Independent
Minister, dying in 1781, has nothing to say about his dependence
upon God. The Quakers, in death as in life, maintain a strict
reserve ; they go down into the darkness with not a word vouchsafed
about their Inner Light.
The Testator, having disposed of his soul, must then dispose
of his body, and give directions about its burial. This part of
the will is also held important; for apparently it was not easy
for a rich man to enter heaven without ‘a thousand masses,’
and poor men would starve themselves to death in order to
have a splendid funeral. Listen to Master Lawrence Bertlott,
registrar of the Bishop of Lincoln, who begins his will, 1471,
in common form as we begin a sermon: ‘In the name of the
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 331
fadre and son and Holy Goost Amen.’ He will have a ‘ prest be
founde to singe for me in the chirch of Hucchyn by the space of
8 yere, saying daily after the offertorie of the masse thise wordes
at the auter ende ‘“‘ for the sowlez of Lawrence Bertlott and
his faders and his moders and for all cristin sowles De Profundis.”’
Also I wol yat at my moneth mynde day (iv) ther be said for me
1000 massez at Huchyn and at seint mary Overies Southwerk
but in especial as many massez as can be provided for to be said
at Huchyn that same day.’ Each priest is to have 4d. for his
pains. The prior of Wymondley also is to have 6s. 8d. and
every canon of that house 3s 4d., ‘to pray god for me and the
same day to keep my dirige and masse of requiem and I wol that
myn obite be kepte in the same Priory by the space of 15 yeres.’
Bertlott requires his ‘ Executors or their assignes to worship
God also during the years above rehersed,’ and to see that the
priests and the poor people get their money after the end of each
commemoration service.
John Pulter, 1485, is a little more modest in his requirements:
‘I wol that my funerall be honestly made and done to the laud
of God and not for the pomp and veyne glory of this miserable
world.’ Nevertheless, ‘for the remission of myne offenses,’
he stipulates for a ‘trentall plenar after the ordinance of St.
Gregory,’ i.e. for three masses on each of the ten chief festivals (v),
and that ‘for the space of XXX days they sing daily Placebo,
Dirige (vi) and Commendacions all by note [1.e. with music], and
after that my body be entered.” Edmund Brown, 1497, leaves
‘XX Xs for 3 virginals [i.e. masses of the B.V.M.] to be celebrated
immediately after my decease.” John Middleton, 1509, makes
provision for mourning at his ‘ moneth’s mynde ’; his executors
are ‘ to cause 13 blacke gownes to be made and geven to 13 poore
men in the honour of our Lorde and of his twelve apostelles.’
Nicholas Mattock, 1521, says, ‘I wille have at my buryall X
torches, all the torches of one length as it may be; and iii tapers
iv. The repetition of the funeral services on the thirtieth day. A very
customary commemoration.
v. Christmas, the Circumcision, the Purification, the Annunciation, the
Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, Trimty Sunday, the Assumption of the
Virgin Mary and her nativity.
v1 Vespers for the dead were known as Placebo because the anthem before
the first psalm was Placebo Domino in regione vivorum (Ps. cxvi. 9). At the
matins for the dead the first anthem was Dirige Domine Deus meus tn conspectu
tuo viam (Ps. v. 8): hence the whole of the morning service for the dead, including
the Mass, came to be designated as a Dirige or Dirge.
332 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
of waxe of iiii Ibs a pece, and poore men to holde both the torches
and the tapers, and every person to have for his labour, iid.’
Simon Bradyson, 1531, requires ‘ V masses of the V wounds of
our Lord Jesus to be seid with V priests on the day of my buriall.’
John Trustram, 1554, filially desires ‘to be buried within the
parish church of Hichyn at the feete of my father.’ Sir Robert
Lytton, 1555, Lord of Minsden, directs that ‘ funerall sermons
be preached for me at Knebworth, Hutchyn, Baldock and
Letchworth, the preacher to have 1os. for every sermon.’ John
Warner, 1558, gives ‘ unto the reparations of Hitchen Church xxs.
upon condicion that I maye have a grave stone to laye upon me.’
By 1575 the Reformation had established itself in the land.
You can already mark the change in the wording of the wills.
There is an end of obits and trentals and month’s minds, of
candles and torches and processions. When Thomas Cartwright
of Royston, the champion of English Puritanism and the foster-
father of the Hitchin Puritans, comes to die in 1603, he directs
that his ‘ bodie shall be layd up in the churchyard of the place
where it shall please the Lord to call me out of this life without
pompe and superstition used in the Popish Synagogues in times
past.” Simplicity more and more is to be Executor’s rule for
burying ‘ God’s creature’ the body. Yet it is not easy for any
Christian Soul to part in silence from the inseparable companion
of its sojourn upon earth. And why should that be called ‘ vile’
which is, or might be made, the temple of the Holy Ghost? One
testator asks rather tenderly that it may be ‘ buried in the church-
yard of Hitchin amongst my oulde frendes.’ John Field, 1725,
cannot bear the thought of having to be buried in woollen
according to the Act of 1667. You can almost hear him muttering
Pope’s line: ‘ Odious! in woollen! *twould a saint provoke.’
‘Item,’ he puts down in his will, ‘my mynde is that my
executors shall bury me in nen only.’ ‘They must take the risk
of the fine of £5 which the law imposes (vii). Henry Taylor,
1748, is anxious about having his grave large enough, for he is
a big man and he knows how careless sextons are: ‘I give to
my Grave Digger one ginne that he take kare to make my grave
vii. Field’s executors did as they were told and buried him in linen. To
avoid detection they had him interred not at Hitchin, but in an obscure village
over the Bedfordshire border. But truth will out. ‘1728. Dec 26. Buried
John Field of Hitchin, Gent.,1n Linnen, of which information was given before
a magistrate.’
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 333
full large, and as sum Incuridgement to Mow down the Weeds
in the Sumer season. It is my desire to have a strong oke coffin
without any Super Fluishes but to be full large. I would have
Wine and Ale to all the people to drinke, and they that are bearers
to the ground my will is that thay be Invited to Super.’
Women, as may be expected, are more particular than men
about appearances. Mary Swain, 1764, requires ‘ to be carried
to the Grave in a Hearse with 4 horses, and the mourners to be
carried in post chaises, and the relations to have hatbands,
ribbands, and gloves.’ Barbara Gregory, 1776, wishes, ‘ to be
buried between my 2 husbands, to have a good substantial elm
coffin lined with white, a Breast-plate with my name and date,
THOMAS GORHAM PIERSON
to be decently nailed, and 6 of the best handles used on coffins.
And that my executor set down a neat pair of grave stones to
my memory and some suitable epitaph.” Ann Trigg, 1769,
begs that her age shall not be disclosed. Gloves are to be given
to all that come to see her, including her washerwoman. The
neighbours are to have 2 bottles of wine (viii). Sarah Newbury,
1824, even prepares particulars for the service: ‘ The words I
vin. The vicar of a parish near Hitchin, whose name I must suppress,
thought it a pity that his mourners should have all the wine. He had a bottle
of port buried with him when he died.
334 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
have chosen for my funerall you will find recorded in the
chapter of verse _, likewise the hymn of the Supplement
No. .” But, like a woman, she cannot make up her mind,
and the blanks are left unfilled. ‘The Rev. Mr. Sloper, to whom
she gives {1 for the sermon, would no doubt see it through,
though she must have pained him by spelling his name ‘ Slopper.’
We may bring this section to an end with a clause out of the
will, dated 1869, of Thomas Gorham Pierson, a solicitor in
Tilehouse Street : ‘ Having been deprived by an act of the Legisla-
ture, in conformity with a Misfounded National Prejudice, of
the right of interment with those of my family who have gone
hence before me, J] direct that my remains be interred in the
vault I have constructed in the hill of the estate bequeathed by
me to Stephen William Clarkson Pierson, having no faith in the
merits of consecrated ground, nor hope of salvation from the
Burial Service, but only in and through the only One triune
God Jehovah I AM and the Blood of His Son once shed for man
and not continually in the Memorial observance thereof ’ (1x).
Ill
Now we come to the religious bequests, of grave concern to
such as value a good name 1n this world, and in the world to
come life everlasting. ‘These also follow an order of their own,
and in medieval wills, which were commonly inspired, if not
actually written, by the clergy, they are seldom wanting. First
of all comes the ‘ mortuary according to the custom of the town ’;
and here in the will of William Chambers, 1519, 1s its usual form:
* I bequeath to the high aulter of the parish church of Hutchyn
for my tythes and oblacions forgotten or necligently witholden
in discharge of my soul, 13s. 4d.’ After that the testator remem-
bers the diocese: ‘ For the Mother churche of Lincolne, 4d.’
Then the Church and the religious houses of his own parish, the
bequests to which have been sufficiently illustrated already in this
history; see Vol. I, pp. 92-4, 139-40,157. Finally,if the testator
is a man of substance, he will give a dole to all the churches of
his own deanery, or to each of the four chief orders of friars,
Carmelite, Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian: e.g. the will
ix. In death as in life Pierson was thwarted; for his body was not allowed
to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah, as his hill-side vault was called.
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 335
of William Astrix, 1501, ‘I bequeath to the 5 Orders of Frers
5 Nobles ’ (x).
You will, of course, find many religious bequests outside
these categories. For example, John Pulter, 1485, bequeaths
‘to Maister Robert Calton, vicar of Ipolites,a booke of myne of
Hampole’s (xi) werke upon the Psalter of David and other
contentes in the same to pray for me.’ William Astrix, 1501,
formerly Lord Mayor of London, bequeaths ‘ all my evill dedys
to the devellis of hell whenes they came fro’ (xii). James
Tydye, 1517, bequeaths ‘to the chapell in the Market Place a
quarter malte,’ which apart from some bare references in early
deeds is the only evidence we have that such a chapel existed.
Margery Astrix, 1523, bequeaths ‘ unto the parishe Churche of
sainte Peters in Cornhill a paxe of silver and gilt garnished with
perles and other stones and also set and garnished with synkefoyles
which is in a litell Spruce Chest.’
John Lorkyn, 1543, gives a red bullock to the parson of Kneb-
worth ‘ to remember me in his beadroll.’ But the bullock and
the bullock’s descendants are to be his for his life only; ‘ and
so to be lefte from parson to parson for ever.’ John Audley,
1620, gives ‘ unto Mr. G. Denne, Minister at Hitchin, to encourage
him to take paines in the ministry, 20s.” Edmund White, 1653,
gives twenty shillings ‘towards a new pulpitt chushian for the
parish of Willyan.’ Richard Tristram, 1785, provides ‘ £100 for
the instruction of poor children in the first principles of the
Christian religion, as nothing seems to me so likely to be a means
of stemming that torrent of vice and immorality so prevalent
amongst the lower classes of people as teaching them to read the
Scriptures and qualifying them for service in Respectable Families.’
Then as now it was considered no small part of religion to
deliver the poor and needy; and the doles to them come appro-
priately in this part of the will. One rejoices to see how open-
handed the early testators were. Many of them could testify
x. The 5th Order, here referred to, would be the Friars of the Sack, other-
wise called Friars of the Penance of Jesus Christ.
x1. Richard Rolle of Hampole was the chief representative of a school of
mystic pietism which poured out 1n English verse and prose its passionate
longing for a spiritual love, contrasting strangely with the arid scholastic logic
of its age. See Miss Hope Allen’s Writings attributed to Richard Rolle,
Hermt of Hampole and materials for hts beography, 1928
xu. There 1s an echo here of the spiteful will which Richard I 1s said to have
made: ‘ I geve my pride to the Templeres and Hospitelers, my covetise to white
monks, and my lecherte to prelates of holy cherches ’ (Trevisa, Higden, vi. 159)
336 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
with Zacchzus: ‘ The half of my goods I give to the poor.’
And there is no niggardly appraising of merit, none of St. Paul’s
‘certain contribution for poor saints,’ or those that ‘ walk in
integrity.’ Good, bad and indifferent, deserving and undeserving,
they are all alike ‘ God’s poor.’
So, n 1470, you find Lawrence Bertlott ordering his executors
to provide ‘a quarter of befe’ for ‘the poor prisoners being in
Newgate,’ and further quarters to their distressed brethren in
Ludgate, Southwark and Breadstreet. They are to ‘ pray the
said poor prisoners of ther charitees to say De Profundis and
other ther praiers’ for his soul, ‘and for alle cristin soules.’
If his ‘ moneth’s mind ’ happens to fall on a Friday, the executors
are to substitute ‘ as muche fisshe as shal cost 5s. for their Refresh-
ing.” John Middleton, 1509, distributes the whole of his residuary
estate ‘1n deeds of pitie and charitie, that is to say in mending
of highwayes, towards poor maydens mariages and in relievyng of
poor house holds.’ ‘That good soul Margery Astrix, 1523, gives
‘ a lode of colys amonges pour people 1n the wyntre ward,’ 3s. 4d.
to ‘the poer syke people of every lazar house within 7 mules of
London,’ and {£10 tc a necessitous ‘ scholer of Cambridge beyng
a lerner in grammar and entending to bea priest.’ Joan Godfrey,
1544, leaves ‘1111d. to every poure man’s child at Langley
ende.’ George Flinders, 1547, bequeaths ‘ Xs in brede to the
povertie of Hichyn.’ Thomas Humblestone, 1595, sets apart
‘ £10 to be laide out in Barley by Thomas Chapman, gentleman,
and Matthew Audley, yeoman, and converted into Malte and the
yearlie increase thereof to redounde to the use of the poore of
Hytchyn, to be disposed of at the discretion of the said ‘Thomas
and Matthew and tenne of the richest men in common estimation
of the toune.’
As a rule it is in this part of the will that the testator remembers
“those whom I have lifted from the font as godfather,’ and those
apprentices, servants and retainers of his who are themselves not
far removed from the status of the poor (xiii). Here it is that the
best side of a man is most tenderly reflected : ‘ I will and bequeath
unto Elizabeth Jakys, wydowe, an old servant of myne, 20s.
x11. It follows that the upper class of servants, e.g stewards, do not come
into this category. ‘The bequests to them are very rare, and for a good reason.
Once a rich nobleman made his will and left handsome legacies to all his
domestics with the exception of his steward. On being asked to explain his
inconsistency: ‘ I leave him out,’ said he, ‘ because he has been 1n my service
for more than twenty years.’
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 337
And farder I will that my wif, being her dame and myne executrice,
be good still unto her and to see her kept her liffes tyme.’ Moved
by the same spirit, William Papworth, 1464, gives ‘ 2 ewe lambs
unto my two men servants and 2 to my mayde servants.” Edward
Feld, 1520, gives ‘ to Dix my servant III shepe, a calfe of a yere
old and a wyneling [weanling] of this year.” James Cheetham,
1523, leaves ‘to every godson that I have a bushel of malte,’
and ‘to my boy Bedforthe my motley, a quarter of whete, a
quarter of malte, an ewe,a lambe and a silver spone.’ To ‘ John
Umfre, prentice, whom I broughte up of a child’ Edward
Trycotte, 1540, makes over the greater part of his worldly goods.
To ‘Henry Corse my boy,’ William Corsore, 1544, gives ‘a
horse with a pack saddle and all things belonging to the said
horse.’ John Style, says his mistress Joan Godfrey, 1544, is
“to have his dwelling within the house this wyntere.” ‘ My
servant John Bedwell,’ says Robert Hynde, 1552, is to have ‘ the
yelowe cowe with white back.’
Now and again you light upon a will which shows the other
side of the picture. For example, Robert Audley, 1543, after
twenty years’ faithful service for the first Ralph Radcliffe of
Hitchin Priory, wishes his books to be distributed ‘ at my Master’s
discretion,’ and bequeaths 4 marks apiece to each of his Master’s
children and a like sum to his mistress.
IV
Now at last the testator’s conscience is clear and he may
consider his own kith and kin. This is no simple matter, for
in these earlier periods of domestic history a man’s estate does
not lie so much in lands and tenements (xiv), or even in coin of
the realm. Nor is it the fashion to refer to property in general
terms as real and personal estate. Goods and chattels, stock
and implements of trade, food and raiment, all this household
stuff has to be specifically bequeathed. ‘That is why these wills,
and the inventories that were lodged with them, are so invaluable.
You may look upon a sixteenth or seventeenth-century house in
your town and vainly speculate upon its past. If only its timbers
xiv. ‘The reader should bear in mind the distinction, no longer existing,
between the ‘ will,’ which disposed of the testator’s land, and the ‘ testament ”
by which he appointed his personal representative and disposed of his chattels.
In medieval times there would be two separate documents; the will generally
written out 1n the vulgar tongue, the testament commonly in Latin.
VOL. ITI. Y
338 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
and its walls would speak. But you can at least put back the
old furniture in its place, for it has been bequeathed, piece by
Piece and from generation to generation. You can do more.
You can clothe the very ghosts that haunt there, not with white
sheets, but with their old-time bravery; all those doublets,
gowns, kirtles and cloaks with which they arrayed themselves
when they were ‘ in the body.’
It takes many wills to furnish one English home. Here we
can cite but a few, and must leave the rest to the intelligent
reader’s imagination and to the research of serious students.
And first of all let us cite Edward Spicer, 1518, who leaves ‘ to
my III daughters each of them a bedd and a bullocke.” Margery
Astrix, 1523, gives ‘ a standing Cupp of silver all gilt chased upright
wayinge 30 ounces and a half to the Felisshipe of the Fisshemongers
of London,’ . . . in whose noble Company her husband had
made his money when he was on earth. This precious relic
perished in the Great Fire of London. She givesasimilar cup to
‘the grocers of London to the use of their hall ’; and ‘ to my son
Thomas a grete standing cupp with a cover of parcell gilt and
on the knopp of the said cover a squyrell . . . also g sponnes
with woodruffes on the ends’ (xv). Agnes Hemmyng, 1533,
gives ‘to Thomas my girdell of friers knottys, and to Robert the
girdell I was married in.’ Lawrence Barn, 1533, gives back ‘ to
Joan my wyfe all the goods she brought with her,’ and adds
‘a gown, a red kertell, a peire of beads of jette the which ware my
other wiffes.’. Edward Trycotte, 1540, yeoman, in disposing
of his goods and raiment speaks of ‘ 2 table cloths, the one I
bought in France, and the other a playn one; the great coffer
with image worke paynteyde on it, another bound with iron,
my chafendyshe of laten [mixed metal] that standeth by the fire,
two heads of Seynte John of Amyasse and XV gaudes of silver.’
Agnes Audley, 1541, refers to ‘ my greate frame [bed] and my
cheiste in the chamber and the folde table in the hall.’
John Lorkyn, 1543, leaves his wife ‘ the redde cowe with its
calfe.” Margaret Grave, 1545, gives ‘to each one of my iii
natural children 1 mylche cowe and one yve of bees.’ Alice
xv. By her time spoons were coming more into common use. In the
fourteenth century one spoon had been held a sufficient luxury for a great man.
* I bequeath,’ says a bishop in 1295, ‘ the spoon which was deputed for my
mouth.’ Even in the sixteenth century spoons were regarded as precious.
Joan Serle of Hitchin, 1557, bequeaths to her son ‘11 silver sponys and not
to sell them.’
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 339
Lacye, 1545, gives ‘to my sonne John the coffere that was
the vicar’s.. Thomas Mondys, 1551, gives ‘to Thomas my
sonne my hallynge [wall-hanging or tapestry] that is peyntede
with Robenhode.’ Sir Robert Lytton, Lord of Minsden, 1555,
bequeaths to his brother Rowland ‘ my grete bedde with the
Testore coloure of yellow and blewe satten embrodered with
flyenge horses and my armes wrought upon it and the Curtens
of the same bed with yellow and blewe sarcenet.” In the last year
of Bloody Mary, William Hubbard makes over to his heir such
things as might help him through those dangerous times—to wit,
“a sword, a daggere and my best purse.’ Moved by the same
thought, James Cotton, 1563, resigns ‘to Edwyn my sonne my
sword and buckler, and after his death it to remayne in the
kyndrede.” To his wife he commends the care of his ‘ spytte
and dryppyng panne and the platterys and the pewter dyshes
and sawcers and candlesticks.’ In the catalogue of Margeret
Lawe’s effects, 1568, you will find all manner of household gear:
“ a great cheiste with picketures thereon, one great bell-candlestick,
one spice mortar with pestell, one mazer bound with silver,
my hollye daye frocke and my best petty coat ’; she does not even
overlook ‘my bed panne.’ In the same way, Agnes Audley,
1607, passes on to her married daughter ‘the warminge pan’
which had been such a comfort to herself.
James Chambers, 1577, bequeaths ‘to John Clements my
blynde horse to be delivered to him immediately after Easter
next.’ Stephen Fox, 1581, who styles himself a gentleman,
bequeaths a ‘ carpett,’ a very great luxury in that age. Joane
Audley, 1581, gives her daughter ‘the quilte that lyeth on me
and one fyne sheet with an open seame.” Edward Hurst, 1586,
gives his daughter Mary ‘ £5 to buy her weddinge apparrell,
my second fether bed, my second coverlett, one boulster, 2
pillows . . . 2 silver spoones, whereof one is all gilded and
the other an apostle spoone, and one brass kettle.” Edward
Howe, 1603, sets up his son Philip with ‘ my hatt which I weare
and my night cappe,’ and gives John Hammond of Pirton another
‘linen cappe wrought with needleworke.’ Elizabeth Joyce
enriches her sister-in-law with ‘ my best beaver hatt, my Damaske
gowne, and Damaske petticoat of a sea-green colour.’ Mary
Welch, 1748, out of ‘the poor allottery ’ which her father left
her by testament, bequeaths a ‘ fireshovel, tongs and bellows.’
Mary Papworth, 1759, bestows Stanhope’s Paraphrases upon
340 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
the Epistles and Gospels, 4 vols., and Young’s Night Thoughts,
upon Cordelia Moor, but wrecks her pious intention by adding
a copy of Matt Prior’s Poems, though she may, of course, have
been misled by the extraordinary dictum of Dr. Johnson that
‘Prior is a lady’s book.’ Something of the same incongruity
appears in the will of Mary Corrie, 1762, who gives her brother
George ‘a Bible and a pair of sheets.’ Elizabeth Hurst, 1762,
keeps her disposing mind entirely on the earth; she is thinking
at the last of ‘ my grey flowered silk Gown and my largest porridge
pot.’ Sarah Boden, widow, 1764, goes to join him whom she had
loved and lost awhile and leaves her rings to their children:
‘To my loving son John one gold ring with this Posy, to wit
Let love abide till Death divide, and to my loving son ‘Thomas
one gold ring with this Posy In Christ and thee my comfort be.’
Mary Swain, spinster, of Preston hamlet, 1764, has no one to
love and very little to leave: ‘To my niece Mary Swain my
best stays and my worst, together with the nutmeg grater and
the jack and spit. To May Doggett my second-best stays, my
red cloake and a frying pan.’
Philip Rotherham, 1765, is 2 man beloved by all and has a
world of friends: ‘I give a guinea apiece to all my neighbours
in Bancroft.” Benjamin Lucas, 1766, parts his raiment, almost
too resplendent for a Quaker, amongst his own people. To
his brother “my green night gown and my whip and cane.’
To William Smith of Olney (a cousin) ‘ my pair of best spurs.’
To sister Ann ‘my dear poor Father’s shirts and neckcloths.’
Daniel Joyner, 1769, hands down to posterity the ‘tea table
and corner cupboard,’ the work of his own capable hands, and as
an afterthought puts in ‘ the Flatt Irons.’ Ann Trigg, 1769, gives
“a crown piece of Queen Anne to Jane Smith, and my green silk-
quilted pettit-coat and my brown camblett riding habit to Mrs.
Hessman.’ Thomas Kent, 1775, like a careful man, remembers
“the china slop Bason ’; in the right hands it may still serve for
future generations. Margaret Albury, 1800, is concerned about
her ‘ half-pint pot and pepper box.’ There is an old silk dressing-
gown she would like William Dunnage to have, and, as he is
writing a History of Hitchin, it may be handy for him to have
‘my map of England.’ ‘ My books to be divided amongst the
family as they can agree but I hope there will bee no words, and
pray don’t sell none of my books. The one as Mr. Clark gave
me take care of for his sake.” Poor old dear. She is evidently
svon’] jonureg Aq yoyeys & WO]
TIIM NMO Y4H ONIAVAW SNITTOO VYoOodAdsa
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 341
anticipating trouble as she looks her last on the greedy faces of
her relations. ‘I hope,’ she adds with a sigh, ‘ I have done the
thing as is ritt on all sides; in my own mind I think I have.’
To conclude this section, let us cite the will of Eleanor Tame,
to which she sets her mark (it is all she can do) in 1841. She
comes of a good family and she keeps up appearances to the very
last. There is hardly a thing to leave, but she will not die intestate
as the vulgar people do. After describing herself as ‘residing
at Skynners almshouses,’ she gives her ‘ Tea Caddy and six
silver tea spoons’ to her daughter Mary Ann; her ‘ picture of
a farmyard ’ to nephew James, and the ‘ china tea service, tea
tray and sugar tongs ’ to her niece Eleanor.
Having disposed of the household stuff, the testator must
decide about the winding up, or the carrying on, of his trade or
profession, and the possibility of providing some maintenance
thereout for his widow. In this difficult part of his will so much
depends on the ability and the family feeling of the son. Is he
capable of succeeding to his father, and will he be an unfailing
support to his mother? Some testators are evidently doubtful
on this score. For example, Thomas Lowe, 1509, who has been
a hard-working wheelwright all his life, gives his ‘ ax, an andax
of winybyll and a bayse [=baze = lever] to Thomas if he go to
the occupation and craft and cast hymself to thryft.” Anyhow,
the timber is to be sold to pay the debts and ‘ my mother shall
have free lybertye in the yarde during her lyff.’ William
Chambers, 1519, on the other hand, has no hesitation. His is
an old-established business: ‘ I give to John my sonne my Tanne
House with all the Fattes beyng in the same and XX daker (xvi)
of leder [leather] and X lode of Barke.’ John Warner, 1558,
yeoman, gives his farmhouse and his ‘ freeland lyenge and beynge
in Walseworthe fielde ’ to his son Robert, but so that ‘ mysonne
nor his heyres shall alyene nor sell my house which I have given
unto hym to no persone but onlye to his brothers and so remayne
to the name of the Warners for ever.’ Leonard Day, 1559,
gives ‘ to Leonarde my sonne my stawle in the market place.’
John Huckle, 1575, gives all his baking plant and utensils,
xvi. Daker = the number of ten, being the customary unit of exchange 1n
dealing in certain articles, especially hides or skins.
342 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
including ‘ my biggest brasse pott and one pair of tonges,’ to
John, his son. Three hundred and fifty years later [1925] his
descendant, John Huckle, is still carrying on the same family
business. Francis Berry, 1723, clockmaker, bequeaths to his
wife Alice ‘ my little clock in the red [lacquer] case,’ to his son
Francis ‘ all my mathematicall books, papers and instruments,
and also my horizontall dyal of Mr. Qughtred’s projection ’ (xvii),
to John Rowell ‘ my large horizontall Dyall shewing the Azith-
muths and point of the compass and every second minute,’ and
to his son Robert ‘ my business as clock maker.’ Michael Samm,
1752, who is a ‘ coller maker,’ hands on to his nephew, Thomas
Samm, ‘ all my working tools (except my vice), my right to the
barn in the Cock Yard, and my place at the water side where I
now dress my leather.’ Richard Tristram, 1785, gives ‘to
William Wilshere all my law books and also all my law MSS.
cases and books of precedents. I also give him my hand organ
and all my optical and philosophical instruments whatsoever.’
It was not customary to give the widow any considerable
interest in the testator’s trade or business. She had to be content
with ‘all her arrayment with gurdells, bedes, rynges and all
other appareil that belongeth to hir body,’ and in addition she
had her dower. If she were, in medieval days, the parson’s
wife, or rather his concubine, she got nothing at all, for the
bishop’s official took her portion and gave it to the poor. But
xvu. Gentle and exhausted reader, 1f you would like a rest in the middle
of this chapter, send for a copy of Aubrey’s Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark,
1898, and read there (11. 105-114) a most entertaining sketch of Oughtred,
1574-1660. By 1597, at the age of twenty-three, he had written his Horolo-
giographica Geometrica, and by 1600 he had conceived the invention of the
projected horizontal instrument for delineating dials upon any kind of plane,
to which Berry 1n his will refers. ‘ His head,’ says Aubrey, ‘ was always
working. He wentnotto bed till 11 a clock; had his tinder box by him, and
on the top of his bed-staffe he had his inkhorne fix’t. Sometimes he went not
to bed in two or three nights, and would not come down to meales till he had
found out the quaesttum’ <A trying husband, but his wife could be trying, too.
‘She was a penurious woman and would not allow him to burn candle after
supper, by which meanes many a good notion 1s lost and many a probleme
unsolved,so that Mr. Henshawe, when he was there, bought candle, which was
a great comfort to the old man.’ Oughtred, 1t seems, was as hard on his pupils
as himself. ‘One Mr. Austin (a most ingeniose man) was his scholar, and
studyed so much that he became mad, fell a laughing and so dyed. Mr. Stokes,
another scholar, fell mad, and dreamt that the good old gentleman came to
him and gave him good advice and so he recovered.” According to Ralph
Greatrex, the mathematical instrument-maker, Oughtred himself ‘ dyed with
joy for the coming 1n of the king.’ But before that he ‘ burned a world of
papers and sayd that the world was not worthy of them; he was so superb.’
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 343
some husbands go out of their way to make the lot of their
widows less desolate. For example, John Middleton, 1509, not only
gives Alice, his wife, an interest in his ‘ londes tenements leasses
and pastures in the towne and feldes of Hychyn,’ but there are a
hundred marks for ‘ the infannte beyng within the womb of my
said wif if god provide any suche infannte.’ Apparently God
did not provide, for in a few months Dame Alice became the
second wife of Sir Thomas More, of blessed memory. Everyone
remembers the portrait of her as nec bella nec puella—neither a
beauty nor a girl, and who that has once heard it can forget that
tongue of hers which sharpened itself on the edge of her husband’s
misfortunes: ‘ Tilly Vally, what will you do, Mr. More? Will
you sit and make goslings in the ashes? Would to God I were
a man and you should quickly see what I would do.’ But when
all is said that can disparage her, it should be remembered that
she sold her own clothes to keep the home at Chelsea going (xviii).
Again, William Chambers, 1551, gives “Margaret my wief
her dwelling in my house and fyerwood for her occupying during
her wydowhed.”’ In another will of that period a daughter, so
long as she remains unmarried, is ‘ to be free of the fire.’ William
Brockett, 1556, will allow his wife to dwell in his house for one
year. After that she is to find another home for herself. And
she is not to take away with her when she goes ‘ the long table,
a cupboarde and the hanginges as they be now at this present
tyme, and also a Mylne called a querne and a great Cheste in the
lofte.’ John Camfield of Langley hamlet, 1625, is still more
severe with his relict. All that she can have is ‘ one hogg, one
flitch of bacon, half the cheese in the house and half the poultry
in the yard.” Thomas Gorham Pierson, by his will dated June 17,
xvin. A good deal of research work 1s being done by Professor R. W.
Chambers, Mrs Carwardine Probert and myself to establish the identity and
antecedents of this Alice Middleton. She1s thought, from the arms on her tomb,
to have been an Arden. Of her daughters by John Middleton one, Alice,
married for her first husband Thomas Elryngton of Hitchin, gent., who by his
will, dated 22 Sept., 1523, devised his seat at Hitchin and his other properties
to his sons 1n tail and in default of issue to John More, the son of Sir Thomas
More. As there were issue, the reversion to John More did not take effect.
The second husband of this Alice was Sir Giles Alington, the co-executor with
Sir Thomas More of her first husband’s estate. There is a further connection
between Hitchin and the More family, for in 1504 a third part of the manor
of Charlton had been granted to John More, then serjeant-at-law, the father of
Sir Thomas (64. 3 350). In the lay Subsidy Rolls for 1523 appear the names of
‘John More 1n goods £4 2s. od.
Thomas More in stipend 20s 4d’
344 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
1869, declares that his wife ‘ Christiana Jane, having withdrawn
herself from me without my assent, and petitioning for a separa-
tion on at best trifling grounds, and having rendered to me next
to no assistance, but on the contrary proved herself to have been
very artful, designing, provocative, grasping and overbearing,
she deserves and I desire that she may have nothing more than
she can legally obtain for her life.’
Death, that comes like a thief in the night, leaves other folk
besides widows and children unprovided ; and the wills that speak
of them are sorrowful reading. For example, Agnes Hemmyng,
1533, bequeaths her mazers, silver spoons, beds, platters and
dishes ‘ to my sonne William towards his household for that he is a
lone man.’ Lettice Banester, 1609, gives ‘to John Dawson who
should have been my husband £9 and 20s. more to bury me which
said {10 is in the handes of my [step] father-in-law [i.e. to be]
Ambrose Smyth of Hitchin.’ Lettice’s mother takes ‘ my best
gowne and kyrtle and neckercher,’ and ‘ all the rest of my goods
I give to my friend John Dawson.’ Thomas Empson, 1719,
who describes himself as ‘a single-man,’ but was on the point
of being married when the fell-sergeant death touched him on
the shoulder, leaves his brown suit to his brother, his grey suit
to a nephew and all else ‘to my loving friend Rebecca Sly.’
Edward Pryor, barber-surgeon, 1751, dies wondering what he
can do to amuse his little girl when he is dead and gone, ‘I give
my daughter Mary bells for a child to play with.’
VI
Last of all comes the appointment of executors and their
duties and their rewards. Last but by no means the least
important, for a bad executor will play ducks and drakes with
the best of wills, and the temptations to go wrong are great.
Moreover, the reputation of executors never yet stood high,
as you may tell from that old rhyme in the Survey of London,
ed. Kingsford, 1. 115 :—
‘Women be forgetful, children be unkind,
Executors are covetous and take what they can find.’
You may set a curse, as many testators do, on such as malad-
minister the estate, cujus antmam Deus deleat de libro vitae (whose
soul may God blot out from the book of Life). You may require
i ; ef
F Oo
‘ ¥ / aw
JOUN HAWLAINS TAKING INSIRUC TIONS FOR MRS HAILFY ’S WILL
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas, 1862
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 345
them to answer in their accounts as if they stood at the last day
before God’s judgment-seat. Or you may bribe them into decent
behaviour with your best cloak and doublet, or, as John Scoot,
1491, bribed his attorney and executor Lawrence Tristram,
with ‘my short gowne of russett.2. Or you may do as early
testators did, appoint an overseer or supervisor to keep an eye
on your executors and risk the old proverb which says that
‘Two secutors and an overseere make thre theves’ (Harleian
MSS. 3038).
No! The only safety is to choose an ‘ indifferent person,’
a neutral in your family feuds and in his character beyond
reproach. ‘Thus, Sir John Sturgeon, 1492, ‘ makes and ordeyns
the most reverend fadre in God my lord Archbisshop of Canter-
bury, Chauncelar of England, my most especial good and gracious
lord, to be the oversear of this same my testament, beseeching
his good grace at the reverence of Criste to take upon him the
payne and labor of oversight and of his charite and godly dis-
position to sey sume praier for my soule.’ William Astrix, 1501,
makes ‘ William Mylbourne, now being Chambleyn of London,
myne overseer, and he to have for his labor my grete Rynge
with myne Armes.’ The widow, Margery Astrix, when she
comes to die in 1523, confides the oversight of her will to ‘ Richard
Broke, one of the King’s Justices,’ and gives him f10 for his
pains. James Cheetham, 1523, says: ‘I will that none of my
kinsfolk shall not meddle with none but that Edward Tricotte
my supervisor shall despose of all.” Edward Tricotte himself,
1540, appoints George Kent as his supervisor, ‘to have for his
labor XXVIs. VIIId. and an olde noble of golde.’ John Wilshere,
who died at the Church House in 1836, appointed the Lord
Chancellor as his executor, which ‘ occasioned considerable
trouble as of course he would not act’ (966). A testator of
1840 appoints as his executor John Morgan, who was much in
demand at the time, for as parish clerk he could see the funeral
through, as a printer he could prepare the black-edged memorial
cards and as a poet he was always willing to throw in a ‘ copy of
verses ’ for the relations, e.g. Lines on the very sudden and affecting
death of Miss Laura Stanton of Hitchin which took place there on
Saturday, January 21, 1832, after a short but severe illness, aged 20.
Written on the day of her funeral. He certainly earned his reward:
‘I give to my friend John Morgan for his trouble my best Nite
Gown and my Bigest Boots.’ In the solicitor’s office to which
346 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
I am attached, we have always thought it better that testators
should appoint the family lawyer as executor and give him, as
Mrs. Hailey gave our predecessor, John Hawkins, a legacy of
£1,000. No one who has undertaken the arduous and thankless
office of an executor can have felt that he was too handsomely
rewarded; for in every estate there is more to be done than the
testator ever dreamed of. It was ever so. For example, the
executor of Sir John Sturgeon, 1492, has to go over to Calais
and be involved in accounts going back over goodness knows
how many years. The Staple of Calais is to have 4os., but
it is ‘to be deducted upon my debenters due to me by the said
company.’ Furthermore, Sturgeon wills and ordains ‘ that if
any person or persons hereafter complayne that I have deiled
with thaym in beyeng or selling other wise then according to
good conscience my executors upon due prove shall make
restution.” A nice thought on his part, but evidently he had
forgotten some of the shady things he had done in his time as
the King’s Master of Munitions (see Vol. I, p. 140), which his
poor, exasperated executors were not allowed to forget. Over
the will of Nicholas Tydye, 1532, also there is an infinity of
trouble, for by his will the testator has involved himself and them
in a whole series of secret trusts, e.g. ‘ I give Xs to Sir Vicar of
Hichyn the which he does knowe what to do therewith.’ Then,
again, testators are so vague in the way they phrase their wills.
‘I wish my son to have my house at Charlton in as lardge and
ample maner as ever it was myne.’ It means that the executors
have to rummage about in the deed-chest and find out whether
the property is freehold or copyhold or leasehold or what it is.
And besides, where are the deeds? Thomas Kent, 1558, says
that ‘all my evidences are in the trunke hutche.’ Another
testator says they are to be found enclosed ‘in my booke with
the grene keuyering ’ [covering]. But they may be anywhere.
Here again is another testator who makes a bequest to his
daughter ‘if she shal be maried worshippfully.’ A condition
not quite void for uncertainty, but one that may result in the
executor having his face thoroughly scratched. ‘Then, too, there
are those bothersome directions at the latter end of the will.
The executors are to see that all deferred legacies are ‘ lodged
within the Chamber of London for the more suretie and profitt
of my children according to the custom of the said Citie.” James
Lucas, 1748, stipulates that his marriage settlement trustee shall
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 347
not ‘ finger any of my money, I knowing him to be a dishonest
man and that he forged a note of Twenty Pounds upon me.’ Ann
Trigg wills and desires ‘my Executors as soon as conveniently
may be after my decease to cause the body of my late uncle
Henry Trigg to be removed into Stevenage Churchyard from the
place where he now lies with as much privacy as possible, and I
do hereby give and leave the sum of 4os. for that purpose’ (xix).
William Thomas, 1790, directs that ‘my Gray Mare shall be
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xix. By his will, proved at Hitchin on October 15, 1724, Henry Trigg,
grocer of Stevenage, committed his body to the west end of his hovel, where
1t was to be decently laid upon a floor prepared by his executor ‘ upon the
purlin.’ There 1t was to stay for at least thirty years, or until ‘ the General
Resurrection when I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God.’
The body was accordingly enclosed in a coffin, and the coffin placed upon the
rafters of the said ‘ hovel’ at the back of the Old Castle Inn. The number of
persons who have gone on pilgrimage to see that coffin speaks volumes for the
curiosity of mankind. It has always been an open question in Stevenage
whether Ann Trigg’s executors did remove the body. At any rate, the coffin
remained on the rafters. John Moore of Hitchin told me, just before he died,
in 1927, that he in his youth had spoken with an old carpenter who had been
hired to make a new coffin bound with iron 1n place of the old one, which was
perishing. In transferring the body he took a lock of hair and a tooth just to
prove that 1t was still there.
348 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
shot immediately after my decease and decently buried, wrapt
up in a cloth with her shoes on.’
At last it is done. ‘The good have been rewarded. ‘The bad
have been cut off with a shilling. The executors and the super-
visors have been directed in their duties. It remains only to call
in a scrivener to make a fair copy of the will; and he must do it
quickly, for the beneficiaries are in torment lest the testator should
expire before he signs. Let the sick man be primed with brandy
and propped up with two extra pillows. Let the family lawyer,
if need be, guide his trembling hand. Let the witnesses see they
do not fumble with the pen. It is finished. The lawyers and
doctors and relations disappear. Now lettest Thou Thy servant
depart in peace.
It used to be said of Francis Bragge, sometime Vicar of Hitchin,
that he was a prolonged and painful preacher. But he could
on occasion be fervid and dramatic. It is told how, one Sunday
morning in 1695, he opened his sermon on this wise: ‘ In the
name of God. Amen. Here (holding it up as a sign and testi-
mony) is the last will and testament of me Francis Bragge which
I made when I first came among you.’ ‘Then he asked them
point-blank how many of them had had the forethought to put
their affairs in order and prepare for their latter end. What
madness to leave duties so essential until one was hovering on the
brink of eternity. ‘ Our Powers and Faculties, both of Soul and
Body, are then generally mightily Disorder’d and very little Servic-
able,our Apprehension dull’d, and Memory weakened and impair’d ;
our Minds distracted by fears and uncertainties, and our bodies
Languishing, full of Pains and great Discomposures ’ (952. 41).
Sound and salutary words, no doubt. Butin the time of our
health we do not listen to them. In the same way a lawyer
may assure his clients that will-making will lengthen out their
days. But, only half persuaded, they put off the appointment
from day to day: ‘ When I have a convenient season I will call
for thee.’ The fact is we do not like to be reminded of our
mortality, and we feel in our very bones that the signing of a will
amounts to an admission. May we not be allowed to cherish
our illusions? Are we not the lords of creation? What we
have, do we not hold as freeholders; not as tenants for life, or
tenants at will, or tenants on sufferance? Shall we not go on
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WILLS AND TESTAMENTS 349
adding to our wealth? ‘I will pull down my barns and build
greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and goods. And
I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for
many years; take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.’ Do we
not all of us hate the priests and loathe the lawyers for disturbing
this pleasant dream of existence, and for saying to us, ‘ Thou
fool!’ Are they right, then, after all? Is it true that we are
but ‘ strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers.’
‘O Death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that
liveth at rest in his possessions! ’
Life is one long series of farewells, but what of the last fare-
well? Here at Hitchin shall we not all of us experience the anguish
of that man whom Jesus loved, ‘and he went away sorrowful,
for he had great possessions ’? Our own goods and chattels may
be few; but in Hitchin itself we have a goodly inheritance, and
it will be hard, at the end, to leave it all behind. ‘Think of it!
‘The place thereof shall know us no more.’ No more to stroll
down Bancroft in the light of the sun, or sit at ease in its enchanting
gardens. No more to idle upon Windmill Hill, and hearken to
St. Mary’s bells. No more in high summer to wander up
Gray’s Lane, lie in the lavender, and watch the heavenly white
butterflies flitting over the heavenly blue. No more to lean out of
Hobley’s windows of a Tuesday and look down upon the hustling,
quarrelling, chaffering, reeking crowd of countrymen, higglers,
hawkers, thieves, loafers and vagabonds in Hitchin Market.
No more to go softly at nightfall into the Trinity Chapel, sit by
Thomas Abbot’s tomb and let the dew of evensong descend
upon one’s soul.
Well, if we must sigh when we come to make our wills, and
sigh still more when we ‘ close our last day,’ let us at least be
honest and remember our benefits. We shall have dwelt in a
pleasant place and we shall have had our hour. Happy if we can
say, out of a clear conscience, that as life-tenants we have not
committed waste. Blessed if we can go on to say that we have
improved our inheritance, and are able to hand down to our
children a maxim of good citizenship which we strove in our
time to keep: ‘ God has lent us the earth for our life. It is a
great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come
after us, and whose names are already written in the book of
creation, as to us. We have no right by anything we do or
neglect to deprive them of what it was in our power to bequeath.’
PLACE-NAMES, FIELD-NAMES & SURNAMES (i)
PLACE-NAMES
I
T is customary to begin the history of
a place with a dissertation upon its name.
Here the perplexed author has left that
difficult matter over until the last, that
he might take more time to consider and
make up his own mind. But who would
not hesitate over the derivation of Hitchin
when all the Hertfordshire historians and
all the doctors of philology have disagreed ?
Just listen, if you will, to some of their
conclusions, for in the multitude of counsellors there is safety
if not certainty, and in this hazardous domain of place-name
study—littered with the bones of so many early explorers—the
golden rule is ‘ safety first.’
* Hitchin, or Hichine,’ says John Norden, our first Hertfordshire
historian, 1598, ‘is more rightly called Hitch End because it
lieth at the end of a famous wood called Hitch (ii), of which also
the Hitch, called Hitch haulfe hundred, taketh name, and not
of the towne which is quasi terminus the utter edge or end of that
woode, though time have extinguished that part of the wood
which laie towardes the towne. It cannot,’ he argues, ‘ be
Hitch-ing which soundeth de pratis unless it bee in that sence as
Lucu is a thick wood de lucendo of yelding light being altogether
darke. So Hitch-inge of meadow ground because it hath no
meadowe, and yet it standeth in a valley between the hils ’ (6. 3).
Chauncy, writing a hundred years later, is not disposed to argue
the point with Norden or any other man. The town, he says
i. Acknowledgments are due to Professor Allen Mawer, Hon. Sec. and
Director of the English Place-Name Society, Professor E:lert Ekwall of
Lund, Sweden, and Professor R. E. Zachrisson of Uppsala, Sweden, for
generously assisting 1n this chapter.
u. Professor Ekwall, in his English River Names, 1928, p.197,says: ‘There
are to my knowledge no other references to this wood, and probably Norden
for some reason mixes Hitchin up with Wych Wood (O.E. Hwiccawudu).’
Here the learned professor, and not Norden, 1s 1n error. Hitch Wood, covering
178 acres, is a dominating feature on all our maps, and 1s preserved only too
well by a stern race of gamekeepers.
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 351
categorically, ‘ was called Hiz from the name of the river that
passes through it ’ (8. 2. 161).
Salmon, 1728, does not leap at this easy explanation: ‘ It is
written in Domesday Hiz. Doubtless the name was Hitch.
But if we are to suppose a Norman dictating the Syllable to the
Clerk with an H at Beginning and another in the End we may
allow it to come as near the Truth as that Record generally is.
It was called in the Time of the Saxons Hicce and in the Charter
HII {ICL
FIVOAENE HICHE
HIVCHH/L HECHYWN
FLIVCHE HUCHYN
FIIYCHE = HUYTHE
HUCCHE HUCHINE
HECHEN HYTCHEN
HIICCHE” = HIITCITING
HACCHE HITCHEN
HYCCHIYN §$HITCHE
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF HITCHIN AS A PLACE-NAME
of Donation to Earl Harold from Edward the Confessor Hitche.
It seems to have its Name from a neighbouring Wood called
Hitch, which once reached to the town, built at the Wood End.
It may be asked why might not the Wood be named from the
Town as well as the Town from the Wood? There was a wood
before there was a Town.’ Yet when he thinks it over again,
Salmon is not quite content with old Norden’s surmise: ‘ It
352 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
may be from the Turn that the Brooke makes near the Priory,
and so derived from Jchen, in British an Elbow or Horn, since
the country of the Iceni hath been thought denominated from
thence’ (10. 148, 160). Clutterbuck, 1815-1827, thinks that
* the termination “ in ”’ has been added since the Norman Conquest,
and seems to resemble the “‘ ac ’’ in Baudac (Baldock), the “‘ ace ”’
in Stigenace (Stevenage), the ‘‘ ache ”? in Langenache (Lannock)
and the “‘hege”’ in Hegestanestone (Hexton)’ (31. 3. 12).
Cussans, 1870, strikes a new and much more promising vein.
‘There can be little doubt,’ he says, ‘ that there were several
hamlets lying in close proximity, each known by the name of
Hicche (with some distinguishing affix), which collectively would
be called the Hicches or, according to the ancient manner of
forming the plural, the Hicchen, as we now speak of the Pelhams
in the hundred of Edwinstree and the Roothings in Essex’
(50. 2. 33).
The first expert to invade our region was the Rev. H. Hall,
but his work, The Names of Places in Hertfordshire, was not the
work of an intrepid pioneer. In his mild opinion the name
signified ‘ the meadow watered by the Hitz . . . for a meadow
when free from trees was called “‘ ing ”’’ (iii). Frederic Seebohm,
1883, was convinced that Hiz is a genuine river-name and
drew attention to the analogous ‘change of MHisseburn or
Icenanburn into Itchen River’ (Hants), and of ‘ aet Iceburn
into Ticeburn and Titchbourne’ (55. 160). Then in 1904
Seebohm’s friend, Professor W. W. Skeat, made a foray into
these parts, and took back to Cambridge the trophies that he
won. ‘ We find,’ he reports later in The Place Names of Hert-
Ffordshire, p. 62, ‘ hundred de Hiz (= Hits), D.B.2,R.B. Hiche
(A.D. 1210); H.R. Hitche (for Hicche); Index to Charters,
Hiche (A.D. 1303); Hicchen (1535); Hechyn (1541); F.A. man’ de
Hicchyn (1346). Kemble has Hicche as a nominative case in
Cod. Dipl. IV, 156, in a charter dated 1062. All these are related
to the A.S. personal name Hicca occurring in ‘ Hiccan-thorn.’
ui. The form Hitcheng does not appear till about 1450, and one need not
seriously consider it. The view of the old school, Kemble, Stubbs, Green
and Canon Taylor, was that names ending in -1ng were to be interpreted as
plural patronymics, giving evidence of clan settlement. But 1n the hght of
modern research some modifications are necessary. See the Eng. Hist. Rev ,
1911, p. 825, where Dr. Bradley argues that the suffix 1s the normal modern
English Phonetic descendant of the Old Norse eng, and means not ‘ meadow’
but ‘ streams.’ See also the monograph by Professor Ekwall on Enghsh Place
Names 1n -ing, 1923, passim, and particularly p. 123.
BANCROFT, LOOKING NORTH-EAST
N.B.—The house where the Enghsh Village Communit, was written 1s in the centre of the picture
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 353
Birch, Cart. Saxon, No. 1252 (iv). We also find Hicca,
apparently as a genitive plural, in a list of territorial names,
Birch, Cart. Saxon, 1. 414. This suggests a nominative singular
Hicc, plural Hiccas, but neither of these occurs. The D.B.
form Hitz pronounced Hits, just as the Old Norman Fiz was
pronounced Fits, is due to an imperfect representation of ch
(as in church), the sound of the late A.S. ¢ before e or 14, as if
Hicca had become Hicce (a form not found); just as wicca became
wicche and is now witch. The final 2 in Hitchin is not easy to
explain. It may be due to the genitive case Hiccan, as if it meant
** Hicca’s place,’”’ but the survival of such a final 2 is remarkable,
and such an explanation is not wholly satisfactory. All we can
say is that the name “ Hitchin ”’ is probably related in some way
to the personal name Hicca.’
Before he quits the field he has a Parthian shot at Seebohm
and the other defenders of the river theory: ‘ I will here make bold
to remark that the river-name Hiz seems to be somewhat comical.
It has all the air of having been invented in comparatively modern
times by someone who had got hold of the Domesday form
Hiz for Hitchin and did not know how it was pronounced ’ (v).
II
Meantime another champion had entered the field, one who
knew not Hicca alias Hicc, or did not wish to know him. For
the last quarter of the nineteenth century the Rev. A. C. Yorke,
Rector of Fowlmere, Cambs, had been at work upon the Antonine
Itinerary, that official record of the Roman Imperial Intelligence
Department which dates from about A.D. 180 and which for
centuries has been the despair of antiquaries. After years of
wandering up and down Icknield Way and Ashwell Street and
Old Walden Way, and after months of measuring the Roman
and English mileage from Wilbury Hill Camp and Ravensburg
Castle and Arbury Banks and Braughing to those military stations
on the Itinerary that were already identified, the learned Rector
stumbled on the truth. ‘ Icini,’ he shouted to his wife, ‘ Icini
is Hitchin.” As he kept on shouting, she made sure that he
iv. ‘I do not agree,’ writes Professor Zachrisson ; * in Hiccan-thorn I take
the first element to be O.E. hece, “‘ titmouse.’
v. With this one may compare the dictum of Professor Zachrisson that ‘ the
name Hiz may be due to a comparatively recent revival of the O.Fr. forms ’
(927. 1. 98).
VOL. Il. Zz
354 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
had gone mad, and called in a doctor. But, when the doctor
(himself of considerable renown as an antiquary in his county)
heard the joyful news, he also went raving mad. ‘ Icini is
Hitchin.’ The enigma of that station solved, all the rest fell into
line; the puzzling deviations were explained; the distances fitted
like a glove. In due time the whole brilliant argument, 72 pages
in print, was unfolded before the Cambridge Antiquarian Society,
to the satisfaction of Professor Skeat and the others whose hearts
burned within them as they listened to the solution of a problem
that had so long vexed the minds of men (919).
Though it was not vital to the argument, the rector took pains
to show the connection between the military station Ictni, which
he had identified as Hitchin, and the Iceni tribe; and this he
supported, at least to his own satisfaction, by evidence of the
early pronunciation of the letter c before e and z in order to
establish the philological kinship of Icini, Icent and AHttche,
and by ‘the strong probability of the Iceni tribe advancing
beyond East Anglian limits to this Hertfordshire frontier.” How
else, he urged, could you explain the chain of fortifications about
Hitchin fronting east? ‘ Here at Wilbury we stand within a
fortress almost of the first class. At Harborough Banks, near
Ashwell, is another considerable camp. At Limloe Hill, near
Litlington, is another. At Melbourne, where the road sends off
a branch to Walden and the Trinobantian oppida, is a camp
(now nearly levelled by the plough) once outlined with a rampart
some 200 yards square, which may date from the time of
Ostorius Scapula’s operations. To the left we catch the glint
of spears and breastplates at Orwell. Farther on, at Grant-
chester the Roman trumpets bray out a summons to parade;
and an answering reveille sounds from Shelford. And away
yonder, where the Gog-Magog Hills screen the horizon, the
white escarpments of Vandlebury twinkle with flashing spear
and casque. Save in the wild and indomitable north, there is
hardly a spot in Britain so gripped in the ‘‘ mailed fist ” of Rome
as this “‘ wedge ”’ of land claimed by the great Iceni.’
If one is not persuaded, one is at least dazzled by the rector’s
thesis. Why grope after any further solution? Yet James B.
Johnston, compiling his Place Names of England and Wales in
1915, would appear not to have heard of A. C. Yorke: ‘ The
name can only mean Hicca’s place. Had the ‘in ”’ been early,
it would probably have represented an old locative (at the place,
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES $355
etc.), but it seems quite late. The river on which it stands,
formerly the Hitche, seems to have been re-christened Hiz
after Domesday.’
With the founding of the English Place-Name Society in
1923 a still more careful investigation was assured, and though
the Hertfordshire volume is not printed as we write, we have
some obiter dicta of Professor Ekwall on p. 22 of the Introduction
to the Survey of English Place-Names printed in 1924. ‘ It is
doubtful,’ he observes, ‘ how far Old English tribal names such
as Gifle, Hicce in the tribal hidage represent old British names.
Gifle is more probably derived from the river-name (now the)
Ivel and the Hicce whose name is preserved in Hitchin may
have got the name from the river Hiz. Both the river-names are
very likely British.’ In his own monograph, English River Names,
1928, p. 197, he carries the inquiry a stage farther: ‘ Hitchin:
Hicca (gen. plur.) 7th (C. 1000) Trib. Hid.; ? ad Hiccam (for -um)
944-6 (C. 1250) B.C.S. 812; Hicche 1062 (12th) K.C.D. 813;
Hiz 1086 D.B.; Hiche 1197-8 F.F.; Hich’ 1275 R.H.; Hiche,
Hich’ 1278 Ass 323. If Hitz is an old stream-name, it would
be easily explained from Welsh sych “ dry” (with h- for s-; cf.
Welsh Hafren from Sabrina). Sych is common in stream-names,
as Sychffrwd, Sychnant. But so long as no early examples of
the name have been found it is more probable that it is a back
formation from Hitchin. The etymology of the latter must
then remain obscure, except in so far as it is the dative plural of
the tribal name O.E. Hicce’. In correspondence between myself
and Professor Ekwall since the printing of his book he has been
good enough to explain why he reads Hiccum for Hiccam. ‘ My
reason is that Hiccam (with a) cannot be the source of Hitchin.
The starting-point for Hitchin I take to be the O.E. dative plural
Hiccum, which became early M.E. Hichen in the same way as
O.E. Cotum became M.E. Coten (1292), now Coton, or O.E.
fleotum gave Fittten c. 1200 (now Flitton, Beds). The O.E.
form of the folk-name would be Hicce (with palatal c), but we
do not know what Hicce is derived from. It might possibly be
a man’s name Hicc’.
‘No,’ says Professor Zachrisson, ‘it is not possible. A
personal name Hicc is out of the question. And besides early
tribal names are never formed from personal names. I take
Hitchin to be etymologically identical with Hicca, Wicca, Huta
for Huca in the Tribal Hidage, and I look upon Hitchin as the
356 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
original home of the Hwiccas, who are likewise identical with the
Hicca, Wicca in the Tribal Hidage. The best proof of this is
that Wych-wood occurs as Hwicce-wudu in Birch 432, but as
Huchewode in Domesday Book (vi). The tribe was probably
named after the river, whose original name in this case must
have been Hwicc(e), later Hicce and Huche. I am inclined to
think that the ultimate base 1s a Keltic Wic as in Wytch Farm,
Devon (O.N. wicum, streams, C.S. g10; cf. also Wicwona, C.S.
125,now Wickhamford, Worc.). I may add that in O.E. “h”
was often prefixed to foreign words ’” (932).
III
For my own part, much as I covet the Iceni connection, I am
numbered of the tribe of Hicca. I feel that one should follow
one’s historical instinct and the prevailing law of place-name
origins, and look for the man who gave his name to the place.
If only the figure of the old chieftain would loom miraculously
for one moment through the mists of time! If only one could
peer at him over the rim of his shield and say, ‘ Thou art the man ’!
How many years now have I hunted him up and down the Ick-
nield Way and blown my horn for him how often on Lilley Hoo?
How many false shadows have I pursued? There were the
Hwicce of the lower Severn valley whom the Mercians had
swallowed up not long before King Offa came to Hitchin. There
was that Haecci who signed as a witness to one of Cadwalla’s
charters in 696 (Birch, C.S. 89). There was that Haecga who
in 765 signed along with King Offa as one of nineteen witnesses
toagrant by Aldnuulf of lands at Stanmer, Lindfield and Burleigh
in the county of Sussex (Birch, C.S. 197). And there was that
Hycga who gave his name to Hycga’s island (now Higney) by
Sawtry Fen (Cambs Antiq. Soc., No. XLIV, p. 325).
But I did at last come nearer to my quarry. It was in the
will of AEthelgifu, the evil genius, and some say the mistress,
of her own son-in-law, the young King Eadwig, who was crowned
in A.D. 956. Every reader of Anglo-Saxon history remembers
how Eadwig abandoned his endless coronation banquet for the
more congenial society of his Queen, and was found by Dunstan
in /Ethelgifu’s bower ‘ in very private and familiar conversation ’
vi. The Professor finds confirmation of his view 1n that Hitchin appears as
Huche and Huchine 1n some early charters.
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES | 357
with the Crown of England tumbling on the floor. Unforgettable,
too, is the stormy scene that ensued, in the courseof which Dunstan
increpitavit mulrerum ineptias (for which the vixen afterwards
sought to put out his eyes), and then clapped the crown on to the
King’s head and dragged him back to his infuriated and inebriated
nobles. ‘There has been quite a battle of the books over the
character of Aithelgifu and over the vexed question whether her
daughter was really married to the King, but we are concerned
here only with her will, which has also been the subject of historical
inquiry (vii). One thing at least is clear from this precious
document which was witnessed by the King, who received ‘ two
horses and all my dogs,’ Archbishop Oda, nine bishops, and
nine ealdormen, namely that /Zthelgifu was a Hertfordshire
woman. ‘The lands at Offey, Welwyn, Munden, Braughing and
Standon, which she has to dispose of, are all in the neighbourhood
of Hitchin, and it is Hitchin she thinks of first of all: ‘ I leave that
land of mine at Longaforde (Langford, Beds) to A£lfnoth for
his life upon condition that he gives every year to Hicca (ut
singulis annis det ad Hiccam) three days’ provisions (Birch, C.S.
No. 812).
There in the heart of the tenth century you touch solid ground.
There is the tribe of Hicca already settled in these parts, hunting
and hungry and wanting food. Even so one does not cry Eureka.
One has still to discover the chieftain who gave his name and fame
to the tribe. And suppose we did discover Hicc leaning upon
his spear on the outskirts of the town; suppose we asked him
where he got his name, what would he say? Would he point
to the primeval forest or to the purling stream? And suppose
we asked the stream, should we have any clearer answer? If
the Hiz has altered its course times out of mind (viii), it may also
have altered its name. For my own part, though it is my bounden
duty as the historian of this parish to find out the meaning of its
name, I am not troubled that it still eludes me; rather the
vu. In E. W. Robertson’s Historzcal Essays, p. 201, there 1s an able analysis
of the eleventh-century copy of this will (Cotton MS , Nero D 1 f 152), which
proves pretty conclusively that in spite of difficulties about dates, and later
interpolations in the copy here reproduced, it 1s the will of Eadwig’s mother-in-
law and not of that other /Ethelgifu who was Edmund’s queen.
vii. There 1s an interesting paper by J E Little, M A ,in the Herts Express
for June 11, 1927, tracing for a distance of three mules, from Charlton across
the Offley Road to Old Wellbury and on to Tingley Wood, the dry bed of
a river which he half ventures to call the Old Hz, and which in 1ts day was
evidently a more 1mportant stream than the one now rising at Well-head.
358 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
reverse. Iam proud to dwell in a place which had its beginnings
before history was born.
IV
Of the Hitchin hamlets we can write less subjunctively, for
their names are regular in form and rise naturally out of the
grouping and development of this ancient community. For
example, Charlton, O.E. ceorla tun, signifies the settlement of
a group of ceorls or freemen preserving a difficult and declining
independence in the midst of those bondmen and villeins who
were the mere chattels of Harold in his great manor of Hiz (above,
Vol. I, pp. 27-8) (ix). That hamlet is on the south of Hitchin.
On the north stands Walsworth, alias Walso, Walser, Walters-
worth, Waltonsworth—one of those many Walsworths, Walworths,
Waltons and Walcotes scattered up and down the land, which
evidence the survival of small groups of wealas, i.e. foreigners
or Britons, and indicate that they were not compelled to live as
serfs on the estates of their conquerors, but had separate hamlets
and homesteads of their own (x) (927. 1. 18). Of the two remain-
ing hamlets Preston, derived from the genitive plural of O.E.
preost, a priest, may either signify a tun, where there was a resident
priest, which was in early days a sufficiently uncommon feature
to be specially characterized, or a community of priests dwelling
beside the church afterwards formed into the preceptory of the
Knights Templars, or an outlying portion of those five hides
ix. ‘ The ceorl,’ says Professor Stenton, ‘was the free, but not noble
landholder, the man to whom 1n Mercia and Wessex the wergild of 200 shillings
belonged. Its to him the laws refer when they are expressed in general terms,
and 1t was on him that the chief fiscal burdens of our English society fell. Even
in the seventh century he can be seen living with his fellows 1n agricultural
communities which have no obvious lord. Thus in the Laws of Ine, S. 42,
it 1s written: ‘‘ If ceorls have common meadow or other share-land to enclose,
and some have enclosed their share, others not, and beasts eat their common
crops or grass, let him go whose 1s the opening and make amends for the
damage done to those who have enclosed their shares, and let them claim from
those who own the beasts such amends as are proper ’’” (Introduction to
Survey of E.P.N., pp. 41-2). ‘ That so few of the many Charltons were in
the possession of freemen in Domesday 1s a measure of the decline of freedom
since the days of the Saxon Conquest’ (Mawer, Place-Names and History,
p. 28).
x. Here, again, Professor Zachrisson holds a different view: ‘ Many or most
Waltons and Walcotes,’ he says, ‘ are to be derived from O.E. weall, ‘* wall,”’
and point to the existence of Roman remains ’ (Zachrisson, Romans, Kelts and
Saxons, 41).
SBI T [gllLuUley AY OULLULGU & WiUd
grgi “TTIW NOLTYVHO
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 359
belonging to the church at Hitchin that King Offa founded
(Vol. I, p. 69); whilst Langley = Long lea speaks for itself (xi).
Over the river-names of our parish there is more uncertainty.
For example, the Oughton, which rises at Oughton Head and
after a course of two miles joins the Hiz at Rowley’s Mill, is
known in its earliest form as Alton, and may, as Professor Ekwall
suggests, be a back-formation and signify ‘the old tun ’—a
supposition which is supported by the number of ancient remains
found in that part of the parish; or there may be a still earlier
form A‘wiell-tun, O.E. town or farm by the river-spring. The
Purwell, which rises in Ippollitts parish and runs by Nine Springs
to Purwell Mill and so through Walsworth to join the Hiz at
Grove Mill, is known in its earlier forms as Pirriwell, Pirral, Pearl
and Pirre. The name is evidently echoic in origin and may be
related to the English dialect word prill, ‘a small stream of
running water,’ and more distantly perhaps to the Norwegian
puldra, ‘to gush,’ and pulla, ‘ to bubble,’ and with the Swedish
porla, polira, ‘to murmur, to purl’ (xii) (931. 333). Passing
along the eastern borders of our parish, this brook has given a
riparian name to Riddy Lane, O.E. rithig, ‘ a small stream,’ and
to Riddy Shott, O.E. sceat, ‘ nook, corner, point,’ or Middle
Dutch schot, ‘ enclosure,’ the field in which I have my humble
habitation. On the opposite point of the parish we have another
place-name, Burford Ray, the Ray in which shows an interesting
development from O.E. éa, ‘ river,’ which is found again in the
river Rhee at Ashwell.
V
Now let us come back into the town and saunter about the
streets. Here, again, are some interesting names, though some
of the best have slipped out of all but historical memory. Fortu-
nately we retain Bucklersbury, though the trade of the smiths and
the armourers is no longer practised in that quarter. ‘Tilehouse,
xi. The record of Langley hamlet 1n Domesday Book is as follows: ‘ Osbert
holds one hide & a half of Geoffrey (de Bech) 1n Langele1. There 1s land for
3 ploughs. There 1s one there and there might be two more. There are two
villeins and four cottagers. There 1s one bondman. Meadow for one ox.
Pannage for 150 hogs. It.1is worth 30 shillings; when received 25 shillings; in
King Edward’s time 30 shillings. Suuen, a vassal of Earl Harold’s, held this
land & might sell 1t.’
xu. ‘If the form Pirriwell quoted by you is old,’ comments Professor
Ekwall, and 1:t certainly is found as far back as 1400, ‘the name looks more
like a compound with O.E. pirge, pyrige, ‘‘ a pear-tree,’” as first element.’
360 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
formerly Tylers Street, into which Bucklersbury runs, reminds
us of a once-famous kiln whose ridge tiles and pantiles and plain
tiles kept the wind and rain off the heads of our forefathers. It
stood at the top of the street where No. 35 now stands. From
Tylers Street you had a short cut into Nun’s Close through Pigs
Alley, a good honest name which the snobbishness of our
Victorians changed into Queen’s Head Passage. From Nun’s
Close you could either go westward up Pie Crust Alley to Gray’s
Lane or right-handed into the market down another alley origi-
nally called Corpus Alley, later Cod-piece Alley, and still later
Quakers’ Alley and Post Office Alley, now West Alley; or you could
go straight on by a pleasant farmstead to meet the Pound in
the narrow ten-foot lane called Pound Lane, formerly Pulters
Lane, and later and now, since its widening, known as Brand
Street.
Away to your left were Butts Close, West Mill and the
Lammas fields. In front were the Fishpond closes, with their
little colony of kingfishers and nightingales. ‘To your right, at
the bottom of the lane, was Cock Street, so called after its medieval
and cock-fighting inn, and now meaninglessly styled High Street.
From Cock Street, turning leftward, you passed by the Brother-
hood or Gildhouse into Gilden Square, a name now forgotten
in Golden Square. Here, until the Reformation, stood the
ancient market cross; and here from the Reformation until the
twentieth century was the Pig Market. From this point of vantage,
with the Trooper’s Arms at your back and the Church House and
the Crown upon your right, you looked down the noble length
of Bancroft, that street of many splendours, which was in its
beginning Benecroft, a mere enclosure within the open fields of
Hitchin, set apart and hedged about for the cultivation of beans,
with which you may compare Maydencroft = Meadowcroft,
Ryecroft and Honey-croft. Right down to Queen Bess’s day the
spelling is still Benecroft; and it is clear that the cultivation was
on a large scale, for in a survey of the manor taken in 1557 the
market itself is referred to as the ‘ bean market ’ (125).
From Bancroft, the northern end of which was known as
Silver Street, you made your way by Portmill Lane (for there was
no Hermitage Road until 1874) into Dead Street, leaving the
mill (which until 1852 stood in the Grange garden) on your left
and the Girls’ Charity School, which, in its last decay as a cottage,
survived to 1927, on your right. Of Dead Street, that grim
S6gr ‘outpy Aazepy Aq Bunuied & wo
LSVa-HINOS ONIHOOT LIOUONVE
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 36:1
reminder of the Black Death, we have already written (Vol. I,
p. 42). Sufficient here to say that the inhabitants, afraid to walk
any longer in this valley of the shadow of death, altered the name
to Back Street about 1660, and once again, about 1840, to Queen
Street. Away to your left, as you stood in the street, ran the
Walsworth Road, which after 1850 was to serve the station also.
In front towered Rawlings Hill, now Windmill Hill, and along its
southern slopes spread those orchards and terraced gardens
which you can see depicted in Drapentier’s plan of the town
(Vol. I, facing p. 17). ‘Through these gardens, again, ran Hollow
Lane, in more religious days called Hallow Lane and Holy Lane
and Holie Waye, which in coaching days was known as Kershaw’s
Hill and was the only way out of the town to Stevenage.
Turning right along Dead Street, you passed some of the
oldest tenements in the town (xiii), and peered through fifteenth-
century gateways into the squalid quarrelsome underworld of
Chapman’s Yard, Gascoigne’s Yard and Barnard’s Yard, those
dens of iniquity referred to in Crime and Punishment, which came
in time to be regarded as some of the worst slums in England
and were cleared in 1926-8. At the southern end of the street
you swung round to the right by the Bull House into Bridge
Street, formerly known as Bull Street, and earlier still as Spittle
Street from the Pest House or Hospital that stood there in the
unhealthiest quarter of the town. And so past the Boot, the
Jockey and the Anchor—all unlicensed now—and past that
ancient house beside the river whose barge-boards, mocking at
the shallow stream below, have alligators carved along them;
past where the Maypole stood aforetime into Sun Street, which
before the Sun rose in its strength to dispute the monopoly of
the medieval Angel Inn was known as Angel Street, and before
the Angel appeared was known as St. Mary’s Street (xiv). And
so into the Market Place—the very heart of Hitchin.
In that brief perambulation you have a glimpse of the old
town as it had stood, content within its borders, since medieval
times—dreaming of many things dead and gone, but not dreaming
of things to come, or of the marvellous expansion of this modern
age, or the addition of streets already too numerous to name.
xu1. Nos. 103-4 in this street, formerly one house, are pronounced to be of
late fourteenth-century date in the Inventory of the Monuments of Hertfordshire,
p 125.
xiv. In two or three seventeenth-century deeds I have seen this street
referred to as Weary-bones Street.
362 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
There are some isolated place-names it is our duty to refer
to before bringing this section to an end. For example, there
is Bury Field, in which Bury, derived from byrig, the dative case
of burh, betokens one of those fortified manor-houses, or moated
homesteads, so prevalent in Hertfordshire and Essex in Conquest
and post-Conquest times. Burford, already named, is, of course,
the Bury ford. ‘Then there is Bearton hard by, which takes its
name from O.E. bere-tun, literally ‘ barley farm,’ but used in the
Middle Ages in a special sense to denote ‘a grange situated in
an outlying part of a manor, where the lord’s crop was stored ’”
(927. 2. 5).
On rising ground to the north stands a farm named Highover,
from O.E. ofer, ‘a bank.’ In name and in situation it may be
compared with High Down, which stands on another eminence
to the west of Hitchin. Skimpot is another place-name that
calls for explanation. It is said to be a corruption of ‘ St. Mary’s
Pottery’ in the same way that Skimmery Hall was colloquial
for St. Mary’s Hall in Oxford (928. iii. 146). We certainly had
a pottery in Hitchin. You may see examples of its work, to wit
two brown glazed jugs, in the museum at St. Albans. Is Poynders
End another relic of that craft? Very likely, for in its earlier
forms it appears as Potters End, and there is Kiln Wood signifi-
cantly near. But there is also a tantalizing brass in Ippollitts
Church to one Poydre and his wife dated 1401. ‘ For my part,’
says Professor Ekwall, ‘ I look upon it as a local form of ** pinder,”’
the officer of the manor having the duty of impounding stray
beasts. This is from O.E. pyndan, and y sometimes gives oi, as
in Roydon from ryge-dun.’ 'To me,’ says Professor Zachrisson,
‘it looks much more like a corruption of Pointer, “a maker of
lace,” seeing that nd for nt is such a common Anglo-French
feature ’ (932).
Finally there is Hollane, otherwise called Hauland, Hullund
and le Holland, on the eastern borders of our parish. This at
first sight would seem to signify land in a hollow, or land on or
near a hoe (cf. Plymouth Hoe), or ridge, O.E. hol or hoh respec-
tively; but it is just possible that the suffix may be derived from
O.N. lundr, which Reginald of Durham (Surtees Soc., ed. 275)
renders nemus pact donatum, i.e. a grove dedicated to peace.
Professors Mawer and Stenton suggest that ‘ this word Jundr in
Scandinavianized England must have been used with the same
heathen religious associations that it had in Scandinavia itself ’
g6gt ‘iapuexaTy OD MA Aq Sunured e worry S6g1 ‘aromysiey MA TL, Aq ydeidojoyd ve worg
NANI HONOTd FHL NNI LOO JHL
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES $363
(928. ili. 220). ‘A grove dedicated to peace.’ And there beside
it, if we may follow our manor roll for 1471 (see Vol. I, p. 47),
are the hinds bending under their sacks of corn, treading the
footpath way down le Redye, across Bradybrigge, past the old
pear-tree which gave its name to the Pirriwelle, and so on to
Purwell Mill. If that be not its meaning it is indeed a pity,
for it makes a gracious little oasis in the desert of the past.
FIELD-NAMES
*‘ All I say is, you don’t know your own lanes and woods and fields.’
—THomas HUGHEs.
WE may as well admit the charge at once. The maker of it
(better known as the author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays) was
acquainted with every field and furlong of our parish, and in his
perambulations was always girding at the farmers for letting
the old names go. By this time they have almost slipped from
common use, though you may still chance to hear them from the
lips of old labourers, or from historians who love to delve them
out of innumerable deeds. It is a pity, for there is nothing more
racy of the soil, nothing that brings back so well the homeliness
and the loveliness of the English country-side. How good it is
to see these field-names cropping up in unexpected places, some-
times even in the public records, and always like Chaucer’s daisies
fresh with dew. What a wholesome reminder that in all the
vicissitudes of Church and State, in the fall of dynasties and in
the clash of arms, Hodge must still lead his team afield in the
morning and from the pastures at nightfall bring home the cows.
I have been collecting the field-names of my parish for over
fifteen years. I have taken them first-hand from patriarchal
ploughmen and white-haired shepherds; and second-hand from
farm leases and estate maps, and third-hand from more than a
thousand deeds. ‘To their number there seems to be no end,
for fields have an exasperating habit of changing their names
four or five times over in the course of the centuries. All we can
do here is to make a brief selection, and classify what we select.
First of all there is that large class which follows the name of the
owner. We have Vicar’s Acre, Gilden Acre, Charley’s Close,
Gallon’s Pasture, Welchman’s Croft, Tristram’s Havings, Kate’s
364 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Close. This last name, which probably refers to the Lady of
our Manor who was also Henry VII’s unfortunate first Queen,
was in itself unfortunate. By the reign of Elizabeth it had
degenerated into Cake’s Close, and by that of Anne it had become
Catt’s Close; such is the forgetfulness of farmers and the careless-
ness of scribes.
Very often, however, it was not the legal owner, but the
casual occupier, man, beast or bird, who gave his name to the
field. Thus we have Fisher’s Close, where Aaron Fisher, the
Hitchin knife-grinder, used to pitch his caravan. You may see
him at work in the illustration that fronts this page; but you
cannot make out the lines painted on the front of his machine :—
‘ Aaron Fisher 1s my name;
Hitchin, Hertfordshire, I came.
When I’m dead, my grinding done,
I hope you will employ my son.’
In Maydencroft manor we have Old Bobwell and Witches’ Close.
Elsewhere in the parish we have fields named Bird-bushes, Plover
Shott, Herne (i.e. Heron) Shott, Rooks Nest, Partridge Pightle,
Gwander’s (i.e. Gander’s) Piece and Kidney Hills. ‘The earliest
form of this last name, Kettenhoe, points to an O.E. cytan-ho,
the hill frequented by a kite. Animal-names are not quite so
numerous, but we have Fox-mere, Hart and Hind Shott, and
Polecatts.
Then there are those fields which are styled after some
natural or unnatural features, e.g. Gooseberry Bush Close,
Eldern Bush Shott, Cistern Shott, Sallow-bush Field and Five-
borrow Field. This last name commonly appears in deeds as
Five Berry and Five Burgh field, though it was not so long since
the five British barrows were ploughed in (xv).
Others are known by the names of their accustomed crops,
e.g. Turnip Close, Saffron Close, Herbers, Wode (i.e. Woad)
Field, Marygold Piece, Cokers (an apple orchard in Dead Street),
Walnuts and Filberts. Others, in plenty, have been given
reproachful names, because the soil was unkind and husbandmen
xv. In the autumn of 1859 a portion of the field was excavated for the
purpose of getting chalk, when it was discovered that the ground 1n all direc-
tions Contained human bones at a very little distance beneath the surface. In
the majority of cases the skeletons were found entire, but no weapons of any
kind were discovered Few of the bodies seem to have been laid in the ground
with any care; in most cases the greatest confusion prevailed (50. 2. 6).
zLgi ynoge ‘Molg sajyeq sewoyy, 4q Yydeisojoyd & worl]
WAGNIYO-FaINH NIHOLIH JHL WaAHSIA NOUVVY ONIMOHS LANYVIN NIHOLIH
-
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES | 365
for all the sweat of their brow could raise no crops on them.
Thus, Rawpightle, Hungry Hill, Stonydell, Deepholm, Sandy
Corner, Drycloger, Beggarly Shott, Starve Acre, Long Gains,
Lousydell, Nettle Dell, Bunkers Hill, Long Gutter, Ducklands,
Hobnail Close, Snakes Piece, Froggdell, Haggy Moors, Fool’s
Acre, Suck-bread, Maggotts Croft, Hail Shott, and Windy Field.
But Hellgates, the most abusive of them all, though I have traced
it back in that form beyond the Civil Wars, may aforetime have
been Hill-cote.
Then there are the fields which have been styled after their
peculiar shapes. Of these we have Shoulder of Mutton Piece,
Plum Pudding Close, Goose Pie Green, Pigeon Pie Close, Catts
Head Close, Butchers Cleaver, and Gorbellied Acre, which last,
in course of time, was blasphemously corrupted into God’s-
belly Acre. Again, there are the diminutives; the little fields
with the little names, e.g. Wren’s Park, Pinfold Park (which may
also signify the pound), Cuckoo’s Hat, Titmouse Close, Spratt
Dell, Little Tickells and Little Toys.
There are names of love and lust—Sweeting’s Valley, Love’s
Mead, Trull’s Close and Hagdell Piece; names of war and echoes
of wrongdoing—Hanging Close, Wrath Croft, Botelers Bane,
Sheepskin Close, and Tatmore and Tutting Hill, i.e. the hull
from which the watch was wont to be kept (xvi); names of eating
and drinking—Alepath Furlong and Cheeseland Close; and names
bestowed long since by Holy Church—Licence Close, Curfew
Close, Bell-rope Piece, Pentecost Field and a field near Gosmore
called Purgatory Field, where on the eve of All Saints’ men are
said to have assembled at midnight, one of them burning a large
fork of straw, whilst the rest knelt in a circle and prayed for the
souls of their departed friends. ‘The popular idea was that the
dead were released for that one night from the pains of purgatory,
but only so long as the straw continued to burn.
The remaining field-names on my list I will set down in a
schedule, and leave the student to derive and classify as he thinks
best. Perhaps in subsequent editions of this work some of them
may be thought worthy of fuller notice, and to that end I invite
the co-operation of my readers, but of those only whose learning
may be trusted. Meantime here is the schedule, in which each
name appears in its most accredited form :—
xvi. It is connected with the verb to tout, which originally meant ‘ to look
out.’
366
Broad Castors
Friday Furlong
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Fiddler’s Grove
Botany Bay Ruffhill Bottom Bodge Mead
Dusty Clough Hurlocks Pitt Conygrees
Sybaris Freyda’s Wyck Sumpters
Mireland Shott Hamser Mead Long Stanell
Cowscroft Spellbrooke Field Leech Croft
Bishammes Carys Grove Pattens
Wrytches Bowstock Hill Figdell Piece
Long Dedkin Lark Hedge Pitchhouse Close
Short Shadwell Stywar Croft Ringwell Cross
Hunting Gate Nocking Acre Lower Innings
Furzen Close Hockles Beldams Knap
Nether 'Tooks Wratts Dolphins Slade
Wisebeard Close Peltoftes Kimberlow
Woolgore Coolys Walcotts
Short Abwell Maltman’s Cotland Haddocks End
SURNAMES (i)
* Quelque diversité d’herbes qu’tl y att, tout s’enveloppe sous le nom de
salade. De mesme, sous la considération des noms, je m’en voys faire icy
une galimafree de divers articles.,—MONTAIGNE, Essats, 1. 46.
I
WITH all respect to our motto, we must approach this diffi-
cult subject in an orderly way. It must be a plain salad. A
mere hotch-pot or gallimaufry will not do. Fortunately the
subject falls of itself into four main divisions; for, as Canon
C. W. Bardsley and Professor Ernest Weekley have amply
shown, surnames must be (i) personal, from a sire or ancestor,
(ii) local, from place of origin or residence, (iii) occupative,
from trade or office, (iv) a nickname, from bodily attributes,
character, etc. (918a. 15-36; 924. 2).
First, then, let us study the hereditary names acquired by
Hitchin men from the personal or Christian name of their fathers
and their mothers. Bardsley, in his sub-divisions, has for No. 1
“the names that preceded and survived the Conquest.’ Of these
we could cite many. Ansell, for example, comes from the
Germanic (or Teutonic) Anselm, and represents the Ansen, the
divine race inhabiting Asgard, the Norse Olympus (925. 31).
i. My thanks are due to Professor Ernest Weekley, author of The Romance
of Names, 1914, and Surnames, 1916, for revising the manuscript of this section
of my work.
STAFFORD ALLEN
From a drawing by Samuel Lucas
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 367
Tusting is the French form of Thurstan, a favourite Norse name,
and Tristram, a great family here since the thirteenth century,
may take its name from the same source (925. 32). In Geary
we have preserved the memory of Geri, the paladin, unless it is
from the obsolete adjective gery, ‘ changeable’ (John le Gery is in
the Hundred Rolls, 1273). In Izzard there is a pale echo of the
famous Celtic name Iseult (924.79). Saunders may have his
choice of a connection with Alexander the Great or with the
horse-parsley which still bears his name (925.188). Everett
and Everard recall the Anglo-Saxon chief Eoforheard, but may
also represent a nickname, eofor-heafod, i.e. ‘ boar-head’ (925. 322).
Of Bardsley’s second sub-division, ‘names introduced or
confirmed by the Normans,’ we have in our Warrens, Drews,
Paines, Harveys and Emerys some humble descendants of the
families enrolled in Domesday Book. Our Pardoes remind us
of the favourite oath name of the Normans, par Dieu. ‘ At every
other word,’ says Camden, ‘they would swear by God.’ Our
Purdys, on the other hand, are from the French pour Dieu (925.
180, 182). Stafford Allen, the mild-looking Quaker whose portrait
fronts this page, was nominally if not lineally descended from
Alan Ferjeant, Count of Brittany, a turbulent, ambitious man
who bore for his arms, not an umbrella, but three burning
castles (g18a. 48). Wilson, Willmott and Wilks may all look to
William the Conqueror as their cognominal ancestor, in the
same way that Codlin (earlier forms Quodling, Querdling, Querde-
lyon) may look to Cceur-de-Lion (917. 499). The name of
Devorgoil, borne by the saintly lady of Hitchin Manor, was too
difficult for adoption as a surname; but it was in common use as
a Christian name for girls in the thirteenth century. The name
Hitchin, though here, of course, chiefly of local origin, can just
as well signify ‘ the son of Richard,’ and at one time ‘ Hitchin ’
was nearly as familiar as ‘ Dick’ (917. 40). In Hutchin, very
prevalent here up to the sixteenth century, we have the diminu-
tive of Hugh (925. 331). Hubbart and Hibbert are variants of
Hubert, whilst Hobbs is a diminutive of Robert (924. 62).
Rawlins proceeds from Ralph by way of the French form Raoul,
and Ransom (which Ferguson derived from O.N. ransamr,
* piratical ’ or ‘ predatory’) is more properly ‘ the son of Ran-
dolph ’ (9182. 636).
Bardsley’s third classification is ‘names from the Calendar
of the Saints.’ Here in this heathen part of Hertfordshire we
368 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
cannot pretend to many such hallowed names. But we have
Mitchell, standing for the Archangel Michael; Perkins, Pirkis
and Perks for St. Peter; Cobbett for St. Cuthbert; Catlin for
St. Catherine; Griggs, a diminutive of St. Gregory; Mayhew, for
St. Matthew; Lucas, for St. Luke; and Smirke, which is just
possibly a corruption of St. Mark (925. 87).
Of ‘names chosen from festivals and Holy days’ we can
muster Tiffany, an old name for Epiphany; Pankhurst, which is
Pentecost in strange disguise (924. 89); and Loveday, by which
we are reminded of those days which used to be fixed for the
arrangement of differences, when old sores were to be healed and
long-standing accounts brought to a settlement (917. 63).
Then there are the ‘ patronymics formed from occupations.’
To this class we can contribute Smithson, Clarkson, Grayson,
i.e. the Grieve, or Reeve’s son, and Kempson, the son of the
“kempe,’ or soldier.
Of Bardsley’s sixth division, ‘ Matronymics,’ we can furnish
examples in Tagg, and Annis, 1.e. ‘ the son of Agnes ’’; Emmot,
Emmett, and Empson, ‘ the son of Emma’; Margetson, ‘ the son
of Margaret’; and Lettsom, ‘the son of Lettice.’ The last
holder of this once fashionable name at Hitchin was a physician,
who practised in the reign of George I. But he was not the
doctor referred to by Bardsley, whose habit of signing his
prescriptions ‘ I Lettsom ’” occasioned this epigram :—
‘When any patient calls in haste,
I physics, bleeds and sweats ’em;
If after that they choose to die,
Why, what care I?
I. Lettsom.’
‘ Names derived from Holy Scripture ’ is Bardsley’s seventhly
and lastly ; and in that class, if space allowed, we could show God’s
plenty, though some examples are not apparent at first sight.
Thus Absolom, in Chaucer’s day hight Absolon, by metathesis
became Aspelon, whence our surname Asplin (925. 205). In
Times we have, not very obviously, ‘ the son of Timothy.’ Lest
there should be any doubt about it, one holder of that name,
afterwards a schoolmaster of this parish, was baptized ‘Timothy
Times. Our families of Samm and Dawson and Nicholls stand,
of course, for Samuel, David and Nicholas.
It was pointed out by Bardsley long ago that our early Biblical
surnames represent not so much the Church’s Bible as the
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 369
Church’s Calendar. ‘ There is not,’ he says, ‘a single name to
betray any internal acquaintance with the Scriptures. Nor could
there well be. An English Bible was unknown, and had there
been one to consult, the reading powers of the nation were too
limited for it to have been much used ’ (917. 99).
With the translation of the Bible at last into the vulgar tongue
and the habitual reading of it in every parish church, a strange
and exciting element was introduced into English nomenclature.
It was as though a new world had been discovered, as rich and
virgin as America or far Cathay. You can tell from a glance at
our Elizabethan registers with what speed and intrepidity our
forefathers went in and possessed the land, for the spoils of the
Old Testament and the Apocrypha are littered on every page.
It was too late to form surnames out of them, but in place of
Tom, Dick and Harry you meet with high-sounding, mouth-
filling font-names like Immanuel, Herodias, Zacchaeus, Zophanie,
Damaris, Magdalene, Tobias, Abraham, Aquila, Beniah, Samson,
Solomon, Rebecca, Dinah, Susanna and Judith. It is hardly
needful to say that not all of them lived up to their Christian
callings; and as for Dives Browne, he disappointed all his relations
by leaving an estate of only £38.
By the time of the Civil War the Puritans had pillaged every-
thing, and were actually inventing names out of those sad
austerities which they inflicted upon themselves for the subjuga-
tion of their souls. Thus we have Prudence Pearles, Modesty
Newman, Silence Hotfoot, Adored Tuffnail and Repentance
Peacock (ii). Beyond these flights it was scarcely possible to go,
and even before the Restoration a reaction had setin. ‘Throughout
the reigns of Charles and James II one marks a steady slump in
Scripture names. From the dizzy heights of the Fifth Monarch-
ists the soul of man came down into the dull, unimaginative
plains of Dutch William and Farmer George; and the community
of saints at Hitchin, where Obadiah Doubleday and Euphonia
Bliss once wrestled with doubts and fears and sighed for the
coming of King Jesus, declined into a race of shopkeepers, on
whose signs, swinging to and fro in the windy streets, were
inscribed such names as John Mildew and Sulley Dab.
1i. ‘Throughout the Civil War Hertfordshire was Puritan almost to a man;
and you cannot examine a single register or muster roll of the period without
being reminded of that fact. ‘Thus we have Wonderful Warwick of Cheshunt,
Lamentation Caudle of Braughing, Mephibosheth Lamprey of Datchworth,
and, best of all, that priceless fellow, Humiliation Scratcher of Ware.
VOL. II. AA
370 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
II
Our second classification, it will be remembered, was ‘ local,
from place of origin or residence.’ Here, as Verstegan in his
Restitution of Decayed Intelligence long since showed, we have an
important and instructive source of surnames: ‘ Now as men
have always first given names unto places, so hath it afterwards
grown usuall that men have taken their names from places.’
Indeed, this was carried to such an extent in early days that you
could map out the metes and bounds of your parish, and fill in
its natural features, from the names in the Hundred Rolls and
Lay Subsidy Rolls and Manor Rolls. ‘Take just a few at random.
Hugo de Cruce, i.e. Hugh of the Cross; Leticia de la lace (pool
or stream); Adam atte styghle, i.e. at the stile; John atte brigg
(bridge); John atte medwe (meadow); Robert atte brok (brook);
Hugh atte hegg (hedge); Richard a Dene (wood); John of the
Forde; Robert Okebank; John Pond; Lawrence Nash, i.e. atten
ash; Gerrard Nokes, 1.e. atten oakes; William Waterfall; Matilda
Antrobus (Fr. entre buis = among the box trees) ; Thomas Bellows
(of the Bell house). Richard de la Riviere, 1296, affords another
admirable example, for you may trace the evolution of his name.
Four years later he is styled Richard Riviere. In the next genera-
tion his son appears on the Rolls as Rivers. In the third
generation the family name is Reeves.
Mark the names of those who strayed into Hitchin from the
neighbouring villages and obtained a settlement here, e.g. Thomas
Graveley, Luke Norton and John of Gaddesden. Mark also the
names of those who came from farther afield: Coxall from Cogges-
hall; Beaver from Belvoir; Snooks from Sevenoaks; Wilshere
from Wiltshire; and Radcliffe, whose ancestral home was by the
red cliffs of Lancashire.
Above all, mark the influx from abroad by those who continued
to wear in their surnames the badge of inferiority to the true-born
Englishman. In the Lay Subsidy Rolls these are often listed
separately under ‘ Names of persons keeping house not born
within the Kingdom of England nor zmdigena facta,’ i.e. naturalized.
Thus we find Gilotus de Galeys (Wales); Thomas Irysshman;
William le Norreys, i.e. the north-countryman, or possibly
Norwegian (918a@. 561); Richard Flemyng; Dennis (le danets,
the inhabitant of Denmark); Hanway from Hainault; John
Gerneseye; Johan de Verdun; Nicholas Frenshman; Maylin
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 371
from Malines; Aris from Arras ; Mansel (O.F. mancel, an inhabitant
of Maine, or its capital Le Mans); Power (O.F. Pohzer, a Picard);
Gascoyne from Gascony; Cain from Caen; Janeway from Genoa;
Pettengell from Portugal; James Erabie from Arabia; and William
Jordan, who, if he had not dipped seven times in that river, had
at any rate served in the Crusades (iii). Whatever drew them from
their native lands: merchant-adventure, the hazard of war, the
lure of love, the doom of outlawry, they came in shoals from
oversea and added their brilliant hues to that coat of many colours
which the ‘ true born’ Englishman already wore. Surely Defoe
had some justification for his insulting rhymes :—
‘ From this amphibious, ill-born mob began
That vain ill-natured thing, the Englishman.
The customs, surnames, languages and manners
Of all these nations are their own explainers,
Whose relics are so lasting and so strong
They have left a shibboleth upon our tongue,
By which with easy search you may distinguish,
Your Roman-—Saxon—Danish—Norman—English.*
Til
We come now to our third section of ‘ names derived from
trade or office.” And here we can but touch the fringe of a vast
subject; for the occupations of to-day and the names that rise
out of them are as nothing to the bewildering diversity and minute
sub-division of crafts in medieval England (iv). In our rapid
survey we must single out those trades that have prospered more
than others in Hitchin town. First and foremost, of course, there
is agriculture, an industry which has flourished on our soil and,
incidentally, given us a rich harvest of names. Of the farm-hands
the earliest recorded is the hine (le Hyne), from A.S. hina, a ser-
vant; and the name is hardly obsolete yet (v), though the Good-
ii. ‘ More likely,’ notes Professor Weekley, ‘ the surname 1s derived from
its use as a font-name, given for some religious reason, but not necessarily
associated with Crusades.’
iv. Bardsley devotes 250 pages to these occupative names, and is always
apologizing for his omissions (917. 172-422).
v. In parts of Yorkshire you may still hear the farm-labourer referred to as
“the hine.” The form ‘ hind,’ which 1s frequently inflicted on me, 1s later in
origin and the d 18 excrescent. Chaucer employs the word to denote not so
372 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
hines who sweated and ‘ swinked ’ here in the fifteenth century
have left off being ‘ Good.’ Almost as early met with is the
swain (le sweyn), whose honest rusticity 1s somewhat disguised
in our Swans and Swannells, though some of these may have
tended swine, and others, long in the neck, may have been nick-
named after the swan, whilst the Swannells, who have been
sign-painters in Hitchin for generations, may have taken their
name from the Swan Inn, whose elegant sign, painted, no doubt,
by them, swung over what is now the entrance to the Arcade.
JAMES SWANNELL
Then there are the names of the more skilled hands on the
farm. Our Mathers were the mowers. Our Tailebushes (earlier
form Taillebois), with their proud Norman name, once trimmed
the hedges. Our Colliers were charcoal-burners. Our Hugh le
Dycker and our Roger le Drayner show their own handiwork;
as Mattock declares the tool he formerly used. Our Millwards
much a farm-hand as a man employed in husbandry; and there 1s a passage 1n
an early poem, quoted in Percy’s Relzques, which lends support to this view :—
‘I am an hine;
And I do use to go to plough,
And earn my meat ere that I dine.’
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES | 373
were keepers of the mill, vigilant upholders of our Lord the
King’s monopoly in grinding, and down upon those who dared
to use hand-mills of their own. Our Haywards (i.e. hedge-
keepers) and Howards, our Sewards (i.e. Sow-herds), Cowards
and Bullards watched over the cattle lest they strayed beyond
the limits of commonable land (vi). Our Pindars and Poynders
impounded those that strayed. Our Todhunters’ (i.e. fox-
hunters’) duty was to exterminate the animal now so carefully
preserved (924. 185). Our Reeves and Greeves and Baileys,
and certainly our Adam le bayliff, 1296, were the little lords and
masters of them all :—
‘ His lordes shepe, his nete, and his deirie,
His swine, his hors, his store, and his pultrie,
Were wholly 1n this reves governing ’
So, also, with that other staple industry of wool, which for
centuries supported Hitchin as it supported England; for ‘ the
ribs of all nations throughout the world,’ as Matthew Paris
observed, ‘ are kept warm by the fleeces of English wool.’ Our
Laners (Fr. laine, wool); our Carders and Kempsters, who combed
it; our Fullers and Walkers and Tuckers, who trampled out the
raw cloth in troughs of water; our Tosers and Towsers, who
‘teased’ the cloth with teasels to produce the nap (vii); our
Tenters, who stretched it upon tenters to dry; our Wadmans
(woad-man), Dyers and Listers (M.E. itster, a dyer), who dyed
it; our Sharmans, Shermans and Shearmans, who put the last
touches upon the manufactured cloth; our Sackers and Packers—
all speak of the successive processes of that intricate occupation,
and recall Langland’s contemporary lines :—
‘ Cloth that cometh from the weaver 1s not comely to wear
Till it be fulled under foot or 1n fulling stocks;
Washen well with water, and with teasels cratched,
Towked and teynted and under tailor’s hands.’
Of the manufacture of leather, our next important industry,
we have many surnominal examples. ‘The skinner, the currier,
vi. But the Howards may also have their name occupatively from being
‘ hog-wards,’ or personally from Hereward.
vu. The statute 4 Edw. IV, c 1, expressly states ‘ that every fuller 1n his
craft and occupation of fuller, rower, or tayseler of cloth, shall exercise and use
taysels and no cards deceitfully 1mpairing the same cloth.’ For an able account
of all the processes employed 1n turning wool into cloth the student may be
commended to Salzman’s Medieval English Industries, 1923 edn., pp. 194-244.
3744 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
the tawer, i.e. he who dressed the lighter goat and kid skins and
made them ready for the glover’s use, the barker and the tanner
are all found in our Rolls and Register books. But the Barkers,
as Professor Weekley reminds us, ‘have swallowed up the
Anglo-Fr. berguier, a shepherd, Fr. berger, with the result that
the Barkers outnumber the Tanners by three to one ’ (924. 150) :—
‘ ** What craftsman are you? ”’ said our King,
“I pray you, tell me now.”
“* I am a barker,’’ quoth the tanner;
‘* What craftsman art thou? ”’’
Edward IV and the Tanner of Tamworth.
Of butchers we can cite a few: Stephen Killeboef, Roger
Carnifice, Ralf Bocher—all of the thirteenth century. Hugo le
Draper, Robert le Spicer, William le Parmenter (i.e. tailor),
Geoffrey Cissore (also a tailor), Richard le pellipar (i.e. furrier),
Reginald le Capper, Roger Fruitore, John le tenecar (i.e. tinker),
Henry Pedder (i.e. pedlar), Robert ‘Tegulator (i.e. tiler), Lawrence
Potter, Simon Leaper (i.e. fish-basket maker), Nicholas le
Napper (viii), ‘Thomas Netter, the net maker, Walter le Shovelere,
Richard le 'Tippere, who made the tips for the long-bows, Martin
Fewster, later Foster (i.e. maker of wooden saddle-frames), and
John Firion are all found as Hitchin tradesmen in the fourteenth
century.
The surname Tapster, 1599, reminds one that the ale-houses
of Shakespearean and pre-Shakespearean days were kept by
women, or ale-wives. Probably Thomas Pothouse, who also
appears in the records of that period, was merely a frequenter.
Ralph Pewter and Elisha Tankard, who follows him on a Lay
Subsidy Roll of 1296, were respectively a worker in lead and tin
and a scion of the noble house of 'Tancred.
Turning to matters of religion, we have Peter Priest, Robert
Vicar and Adam le Chanter, and amongst them we may place
Thomas le Palmere, Thomas Scriptor, Alfred Alphabet, John
Pater Noster, the maker of rosaries, and William Curfew, probably
a bellringer. Medicine is represented by Simon le Surigien as
early as 1320, by innumerable Leeches and Barbers, i.e. barber-
surgeons, and by Thomas Borage, 1519, who may be looked
viu. Napper, Napier. ‘ Napier of Merchiston,’ as Professor Weekley
remarks, ‘had the motto ’a pier, has no equal,’ and described himself on title-
pages as the Nonpareil, but his ancestor was a servant who looked after the
napery or table linen (924. 6).
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 375
upon as a seller of herbs. Music is represented by Mynstrelle,
Piper, Tabor and Fidler. For eight generations we had Crowders,
i.e. players on the six-stringed crowd or violin, and they kept to
their profession. ‘The last of his race is marked ‘ musician ’” in
the Register book. One of them added to the family orchestra
by marrying a Sacbut from the neighbouring parish of Norton.
Then there was the great profession of arms, which has left
its marks even in this peaceful parish. Walter Miles, 1296,
speaks for himself. So does Robert le Bowman, 1365. As for
the Baliols, they took their name from the O.F. word Bailleul,
meaning fort or bailey (925. 286). The Creaseys, though they
claim to have distinguished themselves at the Battle of Cregy,
are more likely to have brought from Kersey in Suffolk the secret
of making the Kersey cloth (9184. 215; 924. 212). The Armours,
though they have dropped a syllable, were formerly armourers.
The Rutters (Fr. routier) were either mercenary soldiers or
players on the rote (924. 160). ‘The Hoblers, by the tenure of
their lands, were obliged to maintain a hobby or nag for the
service of their lord (916.159). ‘The Jenners (engineers) were
the military officers who worked the catapults (918a. 429). The
Kempes were champions or soldiers of uncommon strength.
Last of all let us recall that champion of the Civil War, Batalion
Shotbolt who, when the fighting was done, married a Conquest
and settled down as steward of Hitchin Manor.
If only families would stick to their hereditary jobs, how simple
and befitting it would be. As it is, these occupative names,
serving other and sometimes baser uses, are exasperating and
meaningless. Howcould a Bishop with any sort of soul become
scavenger for the town of Hitchin, or those champions the Kempes
turn schoolmasters, or Robert Spearpoint sink into a Quaker!
And here in 1784 is Edward Tayler, begging ‘to acquaint the
Publick that he has given great satisfaction 1n the town of Hitchin,
and to the nobility in that neighbourhood in the business of
Cutting Corns and Toe-Nails.’ It is enough to make the Master
and Wardens of the gild of Master Tailors turn in their graves!
Perhaps it makes the occasional aptness of the unoccupative
names all the more pleasing. For example, Sir Ralph Radcliffe
in 1738 had a wagoner named Alehorn, of whom the steward
used to say that he could never drive so straight and sure as when
he had had a skinful. The same gentleman had a parlour-maid
with the perfect name of Susan Sugars, and a serving-maid called
376 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Tabitha Newton, who was always put in charge of the cats when
her master went to take the waters at Bath. In the paymaster’s
list of the Hitchin Volunteers in the following century there is a
private who bears the name of Bombproof, and another the name
of Deadman. ‘These, however, are almost nicknames, and may
serve to introduce the reader to our final section.
IV
For his study on nicknames Bardsley lays down three main
and eight subsidiary divisions (917. 423-514), but we must
content ourselves with less. Furst of all let us take the names
arising out of physical peculiarities. ‘These more or less explain
themselves: Megre, Smale (small), Giant (one of whom added
to his stature with the font-name Alexander), Collop (a lump of fat ;
one of our Hitchin Collops was a poet [see Vol. I, p. 209], and
another bore the name of Candlewick Collop), Foot, Barefoot
(who may have undergone a public penance), Puddifoot (i.e.
stumpy foot), Duckfoot (i.e. flatfooted), Lightfoot and Golightly ;
Blundell, Fairfax, Fairbeard, all betokening light complexion or
hair; Oneye (One eye), Gernoun, noteworthy for his ‘ whiskers,’
O.F. gernon = moustache, and Macmillan, i.e. son of the bald
gilly (925. 239). Allbone and Albone, though apparently of this
class, are either local from St. Albans, or from the font-name
Alban. Walter Wykewounde, 1323, evidently bore the marks
of one who had been ‘ badly wounded.’
Secondly, there are the nicknames derived from resemblances
to ‘the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle and every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth ’—an innumerable
class because the oddities and foibles of mankind are so admirably
exemplified and caricatured in the animal creation. Of fish, in
this inland county, we have netted no great quantity. But the
registers supply us with Dab, Pike, Whiting, Crabb and Salmon (ix),
though here again it behoves one to be careful, for Whiting may
also come from A.S.,son of Hwita, i.e. white, and Salmon from
Solomon. We have also had three generations of Codfish;
but one Lucretia Codfish, taking a dishke to her name, altered
it to Bodfish, which those who disliked her, of course, altered
ix. Canon Bardsley, as a story somewhat doubtful but too good to disbelieve,
says that a Mr. Salmon, having been presented by his wife with three boys at
one birth, gave them the names of ‘ Pickled,’ ‘ Potted ’ and ‘ Fresh ” (917. 497).
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 377
at once into Badfish. Moreover, we have had a Sturgeon,
sometime munitioner to His Majesty King Edward IV, and thus
a very royal sturgeon, one who listened many a Christmas Eve,
no doubt, to the carol of good cheer they sang in the falling snow
outside his door :—
* Delicate minced pies
To feast every virgin,
Capon and goose likewise
Brawn, and a dish of sturgeon.’
Of the Beasts born on this Royal manor, upon the confines
of the Royal forest, we could show a terrifying number, a complete
Bestiary indeed. It is a pity to deprive our family of Best of their
superlative excellence; but they are not entitled to it; they are
descended from the /e Beestes of the thirteenth century (917. 487).
Our Fitches bear the obsolete mame of the polecats. Our
Oliphants, i.e. Elephants, died out just before the first circus
came. If Thomas Eaw left descendants they certainly did not
bray out the fact in our registers. Our Griffins are not obsolete,
but they have got entangled with the Griffiths. Our Does and
Roes survive (x). ‘Turning to little things, we have had a Humble-
bee, and we have had a family of Mouse. The Widow Mouse
of 1650 was the last of them.
Of birds we have had both great and small. Shilcocks,
from Shrillcock, a Throstle, Pelicans, Falcons, Buzzards, Corbets
(1.e. ravens), Goslings, Puttocks (i.e. kites), Sparrow-hawks (later
forms Sperehawk, Sparke), Cootes, Sheldrakes, Ruddocks (1.e.
Robin-redbreasts), Pinnocks (i.e. Hedge-sparrows), Knotts (i.e.
Sandpipers, connected by a popular, but quite mendacious,
tradition with King Canute). The Titmus or Titmouse family
have nested here since the fifteenth century, but after 1650
they fell upon evil days. William ‘Tittmose of Hitchin, who left
to better himself at Wallington in 1680, fared further and fared
worse: ‘1682. Petition of William ‘Tittmose, showing that he
is in great want of relief, having a wife and two children to
maintain and nowhere to lodge them in,so that he and they are
forced to lie in the Church porch of Wallington’ (Herts Q:S.
Minute Book, 4. 177d).
Thirdly and lastly, we will take Bardsley’s classification of
x. John Doe and Richard Roe, those names so dear to English case law as
imaginary,litigants, were once 1n actual litigation here.
378 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
nicknames ‘ from peculiarities of disposition, complimentary and
derogatory.’ In this matter he is inclined to think well of mankind,
as if they were for the most part complimentary beings. Here
at Hitchin, however, we have not found it so. As Hertfordshire
hedgehogs, we are prickly in our speech and disposition. Still,
we can show a muster of pretty surnames: Truman, Silverspon
(i.e. one born lucky—bonum nomen, bonum omen), Curtis (cour-
teous), Murrimuth (merry-mouth), Makepeace, Thorowgood and
Toogood, Gentle, Doughty, Wellbeloved. But some which at first
sight appear complimentary, on examination prove the reverse.
For example, Love as a surname is sometime from A.F. love, a
wolf. Grace is from the French le gras, the fat; and Knight is not
always knightly, for Anglo-Saxon cnzht means servant (924. 145).
And now for the derogatory names. Of these in their degrees ;
for some are mild and merely playful, e.g. Wisebeard, Milksop
and Shakehead. ‘This last was the name of Stephen le Shacketh,
chaplain at Hitchin in 1321. No doubt he was accustomed to
shake his head over the sins of his people. Others are in the
ironical, quizzical manner of those who deplore the excess of
goodness or gracefulness in their fellow-creatures. Holyman,
Waddilow (i.e. Wade in love), Lovekins, Sweetsyr—these are
jibes at those who had the defects of their fine qualities. Others
begin to be rude. Highbid is an excellent nickname for a vain-
glorious man. So is Tredgold for a spendthrift. So is Pickbone
for a miser. So is Trepas for a sinner. Gotobed is another for
a sluggard (xi). But Middleditch, though eminently suitable for
a drunkard, is purely local; and Rennie, which used to be derived
from renegatus, a renegade, is now held to spring from renatus,
i.e. reborn, with its obvious Scriptural allusions. Our original
Circuits (M.E. surguidie, from O.F.) would have been pointed
at for their arrogance, and our Bessemers (M.E. bismer) held up
to mockery and derision.
But many of these nicknames went beyond the point of rude-
ness. They were bestowed out of malice aforethought. Give
a dog a bad name and hang him—that was the motive behind these
slanderous sobriquets. It could not be expected that our
Malkins (mal chien) would prosper, and they never did. They
x1. Our Gotobeds came to Hitchin in the sixteenth century from Cambridge-
shire, where they are native, and where they still endure. Professor Weekley
speaks of certain undergraduates contemporary with himself at Cambridge
‘who occasionally slaked their thirst at a riverside inn kept by Bathsheba
Gotobed ” (924. 206).
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES 379
lived down to their names. The last of them came regularly to
Hitchin Bench of a Tuesday, but he was an amusing rascal, took
his punishment well, and never left the court with his tail between
his legs. Another such name was inflicted on our Elizabethan
witch, Mary Bychance, just to remind all and sundry that she
had been misbegotten by the Devil or the Lord knows whom.
Another was dubbed Malculvert (O.F., Culvert), just to remind
him that he was a miscreant and a low-down varlet (cf. Lat.
collibertus, freed slave). Another was murderously named Cain;
and Abel was prefixed to drive the accusation home: Abel Cain.
PORTRAIT OF A HITCHIN SCOLD
Another of our families was condemned to go down to the grave
as Mouldy. Nor do you find any marked respect shown for
women. Perhaps our Wormwoods, Shrews and Scolds deserved
their names ; and if they were like the portrait of a scold by Samuel
Lucas appearing on this page one hastily agrees. But it was
cruel to insult those ill-favoured women, who were the creation
of Almighty God just as much as their enchanting sisters. Poor
Lettice Scareman! Is it surprising that she died a spinster?
Some of these slanders, as I said, are deliberately planned.
For example, there was a Hitchin woman in 1312 bearing the
pleasant name of Scholastica Hiche. Unfortunately she got into
380 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
trouble at Baldock in the same year. But why should she have
her name altered, even 1n the records of the realm, from Hiche
to Biche? Men were more adroit. ‘There was one sinner here
who for reasons evident enough earned the nickname of ‘Thomas
Bawd: that was in 1453. Before he died, however, he had
given a twist to his name and made it Bauld. His children con-
tinued the good work of rehabilitation, and were before they
died honoured under the style of Bold. In precisely the same
way another family, beginning unpropitiously as Lewd, were in
the next century merely Loud, and in the end became quite
respectable as Lloyd; the descendant of Simon Leper, 1325,
had by 1625 disguised himself as Simon Loper; and the descen-
dants of Henry Lecherous of 1314 were by 1614 trading as
apothecaries under the name of Liquorish (xi1).
And now, at the conclusion of my study on Surnames, I will
do as I did with Field-names and place my remaining examples,
unclassified, in a Schedule, and there leave them for further study
on the part of my readers, promising a more particular treatment
of such as appear worthy of it in my later editions :-—
Lucy Uppyng Jonathan Quince Bennet Riddiphet
Tabitha Pilgrim Lazarus Snailwort Philander Morley
Wigmore Wiskin Ezekiel Thickpenny Peter Poleye
Thomas Poydras Humphrey Swallow Katharine Jollyfellow
Godefrid Swythere Ann Outlaw Woolmardine Plum
Tobias Trim Cuthbert Peacock Susan Dolremse
Susannah Sparrow Robert Shipsea John Whippam
Solomon Boosey Bathsheba Nercoat Greediana 'Tarboy
King Fisher Damasine Wiggs Mary Mustrane
Alice Pebble Keturah Gorge Honour Hannam
Immanuel Campion John Mecum Peter Capreole
Cornelius Humblebee Christopher Port William Furian
Joan Soberly Hester Funeral James Neegose
Mercy Lamkin Wilham Blaco Margaret Ratkiso
Timothy Thomas William Phago John Nyx
Susannah Travel Lucretia Gambol John Unkyll
Mary Quint John Broomwit John Slot
Elizabeth Pluckrose Elizabeth Yielding Derrick Stamperowe
Peregrine Woodnut Ghost Butteridge William Porrige (x111).
xu. This ‘ mollification,’ as old Camden called 1t, was easy enough in
medieval times, but not so easy afterwards W. Paley Basildon has called
attention to a much later example of name conversion which worked the other
way: ‘A French family named L’Eglzse, settled 1n London towards the end of
the seventeenth century, became involved 1n lengthy Chancery proceedings.
By 1701 their name was changed to Le Glyse, and 1n 1709 1t appeared as Legless.’
xiu. May I remind readers who are attracted by any of these names that,
PLACE, FIELD AND SURNAMES | 381
Names, names, names! And what’s in a name you say?
Well, that is a question I have tried to answer. It is difficult
enough, but how much more difficult to realize that these names,
standing so yellow now in the Register books, represent creatures
of flesh and blood, once upon a time inhabitants of this very town,
men and women who grew up from cradle to grave in the same
houses, walked the same streets, climbed the same hills, and
played by the same streams as we.
Already they are another world away; sunk into oblivion
amongst the innumerable host of those ‘ which have no memorial,
who are perished as though they had never been born.’ They
had their day and ceased to be. Only Hitchin remains.
morally 1f not legally, they are my particular property? ‘This needs to be
pointed out because a well-known playwright has already appropriated Batalion
Shotbolt out of my first volume and has stuck him into a play which may be
seen before long on the London stage He as a friend of mune 1s 1mmune
from any injunction, but let other playwrights and novelists beware! Sur
Walter Scott, they may remember, used to dole out a guinea very cheerfully
to anyone who brought him a surname or dialect word not known to him before.
It would be a very proper custom to revive But I will leave 1t to their courtesy
and conscience’ I have some names, not entered on this list, which I would
not sell for five guineas!
‘ BACK-FORMATION ” OF A HITCHIN PHILOLOGIST
THE FIRE BRIGADE (i)
‘I am glad that my weak words
Have struck but thus much show of fire.
Fulius Caesar, i. 2.
AI MONGST the Orders of the day issued
Wi when Captain Isaac Chalkley took over
the command of the Hitchin Fire Brigade
in 1875 I find one put for more emphasis
into italics: Each man will be expected to
make himself as effictent as possible and to
obey orders willingly and cheerfully, and
to talk as little as possible in the execution
of his duty. I do not know how far
these rules apply to me, who am ‘ under
orders ’ to write this section of my work; but efficiency I have
studied to attain. I can ‘ hasten to the Engine House’ of my
history knowing that I am ‘ fully equipped ’ with all the thousands
of records that survive. But to ‘ talk as little as possible’! Does
that also apply? Perhaps it should. For the history of brave
men, for that of a Brigade like this, how weak are all our words.
Here we are concerned not with words, but deeds; deeds of
voluntary and public service, unselfish in motive, unflinching
in all the perils of execution, and concerned not with the destruc-
tion of human life, as sadly chances to most deeds of courage,
but with its saving, and with the preservation of our English
homes. Not calmly upon paper, I think, but vividly, intensely,
in the fire-glow of many a wild, ruinous night, in the glare of the
devouring flames, in the crash of falling timbers, in columns of
smoke and columns of saving water, should their tale be told.
With that chastened thought in our minds we will receive our
call, and in the execution of our duty talk ‘ as little as possible.’
As one handles the earliest records the thought constantly
rises, “ How helpless a thing is man, how slow to learn, how
lacking in invention.’ Here in the early seventeenth century,
for example, we were using the same primitive appliances which
i. I have to thank Charles Loftus Barham, ten years Hon. Sec. of the
Hitchin Fire Brigade, and Walter G. Bell, F.S.A., author of The Great Fire
of London, for their help in the preparation of this chapter.
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THE FIRE BRIGADE 383
they were using when our parish church was struck by lightning
and set on fire in 1292, or when Offa’s palace, adjoining the
church, was reduced to a smoking mass of lamentable ruins in
g10; the same appliances again which Augustus Caesar was using
when the Eternal City was consumed for the seventh time in
12 B.C. What could you hope to do with a mere hand-squirt
of 24-inch bore, whose effective delivery was no more than a
gallon? ‘That and a fire hook or two and a few leaky leather
buckets. Do you wonder that the tale is always of disaster?
Do you see the Lord of our Manor and the Defender of the Faith
leaping out of the window of the Angel for dear life in 1523,
with not even a shirt upon his kingly back? (see p. 243 above).
Do you see poor Olyver in 1590 paying what few shillings he
has left in the world to Thomas Harding, the local white-witch
or diviner, ‘ being desirous to know who fired his mother’s
house ’? (72. 1.3). Look on the pitiful figure of Elizabeth
Rugmer of Hitchin, widow, standing on May 10, 1619, in front
of the magistrates in Quarter Sessions, and listen to her as she
stammers out her tale of woe. Her dwelling-house, and the
household stuff, the corn and the grain saved over from last
harvest ‘to the value of £40,’ has all of it been ‘ burned with
fyer.’ Will the Justices have mercy on the widow and the
fatherless? Will they at least give her licence to ask, receive,
gather and have the charitable devotion of well-disposed people
within the county for the relief of herself and her eight poor
children (72. 1. 48)?
Before them, again, in 1625, stands John Throe of Hitchin,
weaver, with a petition in his hand ‘ subscribed by divers of the
inhabitants of the better sorte of the same towne.’ He hands it
to their Worships. It shows that ‘ he hath lived of himself, and
with his labour and paines-taking hath supported and mayntayned
his wife, children and familie, yett is now fallen into greate
povertie by reason of a lamentable fire happening at Hitchin
aforesaid which burnt down the barn and all the outhouses with
all his corn and other goods, to the utter undoing of him and his
family unless some charitable course be taken thereon ’ (72. 5. 69).
Once mote the Justices’ licence is granted, as it is again to
Thomas Parsons and Elizabeth Shuffield and Zachary Wye, ‘ poor
inhabitants of Hitchin,’ in 1629. But Thomas Parsons has to
appear, not as a petitioner, but as prisoner six months later, for
he had ‘ collected divers sums of money and detained the same
384 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
from the other two’ (72. 5. 120, 129). Another petitioner who
comes before them is Affliction Rose, who was given that lugu-
brious name because on three occasions he had suffered loss by
fire (72. 5. 125).
Where was the Hitchin Fire Brigade in those devastating
days? Well, there was none. All that the parish possessed was
a few rusty appliances stowed away in St. Mary’s tower, in the
charge of the Churchwardens and Overseers, whose doubtful
duty it was to come for them if they chanced to hear of the fire
and if they could find the key. ‘ Whilst I was musing the fire
burned,’ says the Psalmist. With the parish officers snug in
bed, or snoring by the tavern fire, how often that was true. And
you could not alter them. They were the creatures of their age.
It was God’s will if a fire came—a visitation of the Most High;
and with their half-timbered dwellings and thatched roofs it was
impossible to stop it if you tried. ‘The wind bloweth where it
listeth, and a fire will have its way. ‘There again their Bible told
them true. There are four things that are never satisfied: ‘ the
grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water,
and the fire that saith not It ts enough ’ (Prov. 30. 16).
Not till the Civil War had made men self-reliant, and ardent
preservers of the Commonwealth which they had won, do you
find any escape from this inertia. But Cromwell and his Major-
Generals were alive to all the dangers of the State. They and
their Acts and Ordinances were everywhere. You begin to see
the Court Leet of Hitchin Manor waking up. At court after
court the tenants are enjoined to keep buckets of water outside
their doorways as a precaution against fire. Session after session
in 1654 the Hitchin Magistrates are commanded ‘ to keep diligent
watch and take a strict account of all strangers, which will not
only be a means to suppress all loose and idle persons, but may
probably cause some of those who come from abroad to kindle
fires here to be apprehended and seized upon’ (72. 1. 109).
At St. Albans the enlightened Corporation provided ‘a sub-
stantial engine of brass with its carriage for the purpose of
beating and drowning of fires ’—the wonder and envy of the
county. ‘There was some uncertainty about the way to work it,
but the directions were sufficiently precise: * Lett the Engine
stand halfe full of water at all times but in ffrosty weather; and
when a ffrost comes lett out the water, and lett it stand empty
duringe the frost. Observe when you goe to worke the engine
THE FIRE BRIGADE 385
that flower or five men be placed at each end, and lett them lift
up their hands with the handles as high as they can, and pull
downe the handles againe as low as they can, and the men to
work and make their stroakes joimtly, and as nere as they can
together. The handles are marked, therefore be sure that the
handles be putt on at the right ends, for there are markes alike
on one handle and on one post viz. two little notches. Lett the
pyns be putt into their right places againe. ‘There is a wrench
to take the engine in pieces, one end thereof unskrewes the
inward screwes, and another the lower screwes ’ (956. 4).
II
But it needed the Great Fire of London in 1666 to drive the
lesson home. The conflagration, even at this distance, was
a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night, which not
even a parish beadle could sleep through. At Hitchin the towns-
men were in tense and dreadful expectation. Seeing the glare
in the sky they asked, Was it London, or was it nearer still? The
whole country was in alarm. Horsemen at full gallop came
hurrying through, shouting confused and contradictory orders.
Hertfordshire was to send two hundred soldiers forthwith, and
carts laden with pickaxes, spades and buckets. Hitchin was to
send six (53). Day after day passed and not one of the six
returned. Meantime the whole town stood to arms. It was
not safe to go to bed—not even for a woman. In the County
Records you can still hear the town constable having words with
Elizabeth Warland of Ippollitts. Widow or no widow, she must
get up at once. ‘The fire was coming nearer. She might be
needed even with her cracked old bucket. After it was all over
she was haled before the magistrates ‘ for refusing to watch at
the constable’s request in September last when the fire was in
London ’ (72. 1. 184).
Who set London alight? That was the other question which
troubled the minds of men. Was it the Papists, was it the
Quakers? Or was it Thomas Ibbot, who with five others,
‘suspected to be privy to the fyreing of London,’ had been
arrested close to them and carried off to Hertford? Or was what
Ibbot said the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
‘It is,’ he maintained, ‘ from the hand of the Lord, and he will
give the King an account of it when he comes to him ’ (72. 1. 179).
VOL. II. BB
386 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
That the Great Fire of London was no nine days’ wonder,
but a continuing terror, is shown by the protective measures taken
by the local Justices. Some of these are almost puerile, but the
people were willing to do anything either great or small to be
saved from such another calamity. ‘1684. Whereas it is found
by experience that the taking of tobacco is very commonly used
of late in the streets, lanes, stables and outhouses and may be of
dangerous consequences and cause the firing of houses and towns
if not prevented, it is Ordered that no person or persons do
hereafter presume to take tobacco in any streets, lanes, stables;
and it is required that all constables, head-boroughs and other
officers do make diligent search and enquiry after all such persons
and apprehend and bring them before a Justice’ (Herts Q:S.
Court for 6 Oct., 1684, f. 200). In 1688 another order was
issued ‘ that no person whatsoever should presume to make or
encourage the making of any bonfires or any public fireworks
without leave from the Justices or His Majesty’s Council ’ (Herts
Q.S. Minute Book 4. f. 45). More useful than either of these
trifling enactments was the experiment of another Hitchin magis-
trate, William Hale of King’s Walden, who in 1683 founded a
Friendly Society which insured its members against fire on a
basis of mutual contribution. The fire-mark of this company,
an iron plate fixed to each house insured, bore the crest of the
Hale family.
Urged by the destruction in 1677 of Shotting Mill, afterwards
known as Burnt Mill, and now as Grove Mill, the Churchwardens
had followed the example of St. Albans and purchased a fire-
engine. We do not know the precise year of its purchase or
the cost of it. We do know, however, that it was a primitive
affair: merely a wooden tank on four solid wheels, with a brass
pump in the middle worked by two handles, in all respects similar
to the engine shown in the illustration that fronts this page. We
know also that it served the parish until 1723, and was then sold
by Churchwardens James Lucas, James Turner and John Newton
for £6 (934). With this sum in their hands, and a balance on
the old rate, and some donations—e.g. ‘ received from an unknown
hand one guinea ’—they were able to purchase two more manuals
from William Coles, one for {14 and the other for £8. These
were delivered just in time for the great fire which destroyed the
village of Caldecote on April 24th that year. For a town of
our modest dimensions it might have been thought that two
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THE FIRE BRIGADE 387
engines were sufficient. But in 1730 Churchwardens John
Malein, David Marshall and Daniel Warner went to London
with two horses and purchased a third, a greatly improved engine,
from a Mr. Deane for £30 15s. 6d. In that year, therefore, the
parish possessed three engines, six dozen leather buckets, pur-
chased for £10 16s. in 1717 and 1728, and two ancient fire-hooks
which might have seen service in Elizabethan days—a very
considerable equipment for a country town.
The parish evidently took a piide in its engines and looked
after them well. At this time, too, you may trace the beginning
of that organization which was to result later in a fire-brigade.
As early as 1743 there are references to the ‘ Ingenears ’ in the
Wardens’ accounts, and sometimes there is a record of the men
who attend a fire. But at this stage of development the engines
are the chief concern, and they are constantly needing attention.
Bills come in regularly for ‘ playing the engines ’ at the quarterly
practice, for ‘ beer when they tryd the engines,’ for ‘ pitching
the engines,’ for ‘ taking the Engine a pieces and oyling,’ for
*‘ puting a tire on the Ingen, 15 spikes,’ for ‘ lining and mending
the 2 larg Arm irons to ye Great Ingen ye men play it with,’ for
‘3 setts of Irons of 3 wheels and hetein, put-in-on, altering
Revitts and Burnin the hools Bigger,’ for ‘new Lince pin and
double key to ditto.” So with the other appliances. The
buckets have to be ‘ pitched and oyled and bottomed.’ Three
dozen more have to be bought in 1753, numbers painted on them,
and a deal board provided ‘ to hang the Bucketts on.’ In 1762
there is 2s. 6d. to pay for ‘ mending and lining a Larg fier hook
and put 3 Ib. of iron to dito and 3 Staples and nails ’ (934).
In comparison with the sums expended on the engines those
expended on the ‘ ingenears ’ seem very small. But those were
times when men offered themselves willingly for 6d. a day, or
for half a gallon of beer. The following items may be left to
speak for themselves: ‘1728. Nov. 5. Paid Arthur Wilson
and John Lyle for beer when the fire was at Mrs. Carters, £1’;
‘Paid the Ingenear a bill, 21s.’; ‘1749. ‘To Beer to the Men
as plaid the Engines when mended and cleaned after they came
from Willion Fire’; ‘1765. To Billey Dixon and Wm. Dixon
for watching at the Fire 3s. 3d., and more for candles and torches,
4s.’; ‘1771. Paid Robert Baker, William Ball, John Day, John
Jeeves, Ben Munsey, William Smith and Francis Field for
attending at night at Widow Hawks’s Fire, 10s. 6d.’; ‘ 1779.
388 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Paid the men for cleaning and setting up the Engines two different
times after Mr. Whitney’s fires at Gosmore, 13s.’ (934).
IIl
From what has just been quoted it is clear that the engines
were not left to rust in idleness in St. Mary’s tower. ‘Throughout
this period Hitchin had been almost immune from serious fires;
but its neighbours were constantly calling out for help. In 1722
Buntingford was visited with ‘a Dreadful Fire,’ which ‘ went on
with such fury ’ that if the wind had not veered the whole town
might have been consumed. ‘The mansion at Stagenhoe, near
Hitchin, perished utterly in 1737. Royston lost thirty-six houses
in 1747; and Barkway nineteen cottages in 1748.
On September 11, 1762, however, there was a conflagration
at Hitchin, the like of which not even the oldest inhabitant could
remember. According to the London journals (for, strangely
enough, no local record survives) as many as twenty cottages in
Hollow Lane were levelled to the ground (936).
That was bad enough, but in 1783 there befell a series of
fires which reduced all the cottagers and householders to terror.
It was evident that a great conspiracy of arson was afoot which,
taken with a startling increase in crimes of violence and the
threatening attitude of the populace, made peaceable and proper-
tied citizens look forward with dread to the prospect of an
English revolution. The campaign of incendiarism opened at
Potton in the middle of harvest on August 14th. The casualties
were appalling. Most of the township was destroyed and damage
suffered to the extent of £25,000. The Hitchin people, pro-
foundly moved by this catastrophe, contributed £269 118. for the
support of their ruined and homeless neighbours, but were soon
to be reminded that charity should be reserved for those at home.
Biggleswade was the next to suffer, though there the fire was
checked (ii). Then, coming nearer still, letters were found at
Baldock threatening to set that town on fire. A few days later
Hitchin was attacked. On October 21st the kiln-house of Mr.
Lyle at New England was burnt down, but the ‘ ingenears ’ saved
his farm-buildings and his stacks. ‘Ten days later a fire broke
11. The threat to Biggleswade matured two years later, June 16, 1785,
when 100 houses and 10 maltings were set ablaze. The Hitchin people watched
the flames from Windmill Hill.
THE FIRE BRIGADE 389
out at Mr. Bury’s malt-kiln in Tilehouse Street, not far from the
Baptist Chapel, where Pastor John Geard was holding ‘ a Solemn
fast day on account of several fires in the neighbourhood, which
do not appear to be occasioned by accident.’ On the sixth day
following, the barn of Mr. Collison near Butts Close was fired,
and the chaff-house of John Lucas the same night. On Novem-
ber 8th a barn occupied by Mr. Folbigg was destroyed. On
November 11th the firemen were summoned to a stack fire at
Gosmore.
They were hardly back from that when they received a call
to Samuel Crawley’s farm along the London Road. All save the
farmhouse was destroyed. On November 24th a Maydencroft
stack was set alight. On November 28th a letter was found in
the Bedford Road threatening to set the whole town on fire:
‘You gentlemen, mealmen and bootchers and backers and
Grocers of Hitchin . . . if you don’t sink [i.e. your prices] we
will burn you down as fow [fast] as we cann.’ The Overseers
published this letter as a broadsheet, together with a list of the
seven incendiary fires just named. On December 2nd John
Whitney had his cornstacks fired, and Samuel Bradley his hay-
stacks on December 13th. On Christmas Day John Whitney’s
farm was again attacked, and this time the buildings were
destroyed. ‘ ‘The house was in imminent danger,’ writes one of
the onlookers, ‘ it having taken fire, and must have been burned
down had not engines and assistance from Hitchin come. It was
inhabited by three families, and two of the women lay in at the
time. One of them had been brought to bed about ten days.
The other, who lay in one of the rooms that took fire, only two
days. Both of them ran out into the highway almost naked,
without shoes or stockings, although it was a frost and a deep
snow, but both of them survived ’ (15.15). On January 16, 1784,
a fire occurred in King’s Arms Yard, Bucklersbury, and another
fire in the same yard on February 29th.
Thus the Hitchin firemen were called to five fires within seven
days, seven within a month, eleven in nine weeks and two days
and thirteen fires within twenty weeks. A reward of £50 was
offered for the discovery of the offenders, and John Radcliffe
promised the King’s pardon for any accomplice who would turn
informer. ‘My dear friend,’ writes the poet Cowper to the
Rev. John Newton on November 17th, in the very midst of these
misfortunes, ‘the country around us is much alarmed with
390 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
apprehensions of fire. Two have happened since that of Olney.
One at Hitchin, where the damage is said to amount to £11,000,
and another at a place not far from Hitchin, of which I have not
learnt the name. Letters have been dropped at Bedford
threatening to burn the town, and the inhabitants have been so
intimidated as to have placed a guard in many parts of it several
nights past.’
IV
By good luck or by the endeavours of the ‘ ingenears,’ the
town came through this ordeal of fire with only a partial loss.
It was, as John Geard said, a brand plucked out of the burning.
But no one who lived through that reign of terror was likely to
forget it; the memory of it was seared into their very bones.
Moreover, the incendiary fires continued, though at longer inter-
vals, for many years; and right up to the Reform Act inflammatory
letters were being posted about the town. In 1795 the kilns at
Maydencroft were destroyed by an incendiary. In 1796 a ‘ Hert-
fordshire Society for the Security of Property ’ was formed, and
large rewards were offered for evidence leading to the conviction
of those who ‘ maliciously and wilfully destroyed buildings and
property.’ In 1801 William Cox was sentenced to death for
arson. In 1817 William Moles was found guilty of the same
offence, and, though a mere boy, was hanged upon the scene of
his crime (see above, p. 320). Other alarming fires there were
of doubtful origin. In 1793, for example, William Langford’s
furniture store in Sun Street was gutted, and only by great
efforts were the surrounding houses in that congested quarter
saved ; some part of the credit being due to the Stevenage treadle-
engine, which was hurried over in a wagon: ‘ Dec. 28. Paid
Mrs. Allbury (of the Cock Inn) for beer for the men who brought
the Engine from Stevenage, 5s.; Paid the men for attending at
the fire, {2 2s.” A few years later the Hitchin ‘ ingenears ’ were
able to requite this service by taking their three engines in three
wagons to a fire at Stevenage, which consumed forty-two houses
and many outbuildings and barns. Indeed, it nearly consumed
the Hitchin engines also, for they returned in a sorrowfully singed
and scorched condition. ‘The wardens’ accounts for the following
fortnight are crowded with bills for ‘ milled lead to the Ingins,
sement to joints, best blue and best red paint, writing 61 [etters
THE FIRE BRIGADE 391
and 7 figures on ingins, marking 120 bucketts (iii), new leathers
to the plungers, and painting a ladder ’ (934).
It is in this period one observes a growing demand for a
competent fire service. ‘Those three little engines were getting
absurdly out of date. Useful enough in small outbreaks in the
town; but for those in the hamlets beyond, when the machines
had to be hoisted on to wagons and sent lumbering along the
lanes, how maddeningly slow they were! ‘There were complaints
about the management, too. The Churchwardens, who were
legally in charge, were always being changed. The beadle was
never there when he was wanted. ‘The ‘ ingenears ’ needed such
a deal of starting and such a deal of stoking. On one occasion
they were said to have consumed {2 6s. 7d. worth of beer, enough
of itself, if applied through the hose,to have put out any ordinary
fire. On the whole one feels that Dickens’s caricature of the
fire service of that age was not very wide of the truth (iv).
Then arose Robert Newton, a man of exhaustless energy and
practical experience, and set the parish to rights. When he was
made People’s Warden in 1814 he induced the ratepayers to put
down {109 14s. 6d. for a large horse-drawn engine designed for
twenty pumpers by Tilley, which, like those tiny manual engines
of 1723, became at once the wonder and envy of the country-side.
He then proceeded to take the control of the fire service out of
the hand of the Wardens and vest it in that of a Hitchin Fire
Establishment composed of the Churchwardens, the agents of
the Insurance Companies (v), and certain leading inhabitants.
In place of the go-as-you-please ‘ingenears’ a Hitchin Fire
Brigade was constituted, consisting of twenty-four men such as
Newton could trust, and holding office under the superintendence
of his son, who had been given the name of the illustrious Sir
ui. The increase 1n the number of buckets was due to the generosity of the
Phoenix Insurance Company, who had presented twenty-four new buckets
in 1781.
iv. ‘ Two little boys run to the beadle . . . and report that some neighbour-
ing chimney 1s on fire; the engine 1s hastily got out, and a plentiful supply of
boys being obtained and harnessed to 1t with ropes, away they rattle over the
pebbles, the beadle running—we do not exaggerate—at one side, until they
arrive at some house smelling strongly of soot, at the door of which the beadle
knocks with considerable gravity for half an hour. No attention being paid
to these manual applications, the engine turns off amid the shouts of the boys;
it pulls up once more at the parish church tower, and the beadle “‘ pulls up ”’
the unfortunate householder next day for a reward.’
v. Towards the cost of the new engine the Sun Fire Office had given {£10
and the Phoenix £10 Ios.
392 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Isaac, the pride of their family. ‘That the new engine and the
old engines might be under his very nose he decided to house
them in the yard of his business premises in Tilehouse Street.
It had its drawbacks, for the yard was used as a drying-ground
for the family washing.
If there happened to be a fire on washing day, there was
great excitement. Isaac Newton would be dancing about hot
with zeal, shouting ‘ Cut the lines, cut the lines.” The horses,
as they galloped up to their places before the engine, would
trample the laundry underfoot; and Superintendent Newton
would go off to the fire, more afraid of what his wife would
say when he returned than of any peril in the flames (951).
V
You may see the hand of the two Newtons everywhere, for
nothing escaped their vigilance. It was they who ordered new
staves for the firemen and painted them, they who varnished the
ancient fire-hook and repitched the buckets. It was they who
provided the sheep-skin and cord to keep the engine warm. It
was they who inserted the two earthenware pipes in the wall of
the Priory pond, so that the suction hose of the engines might
pass through and draw from the deeper water. It was they who
trained the two plumbers who accompanied the engines to every
fire. At their request Dr. Joseph White Niblock, Master of the
Free School and Curate of the parish, preached a sermon on
‘Church and Fire Briefs,’ which was printed and circulated far
and wide. At their request, again, the Justices gave notice ‘ that
every person who shall sell, give away or fire off any Fire-work
on the 5th November, or on any other day, will be proceeded
against and fined ’ (gor. 1814, Oct. 26). This was too much.
No wonder the spoil-sport Big-Wigs were ‘ be-hooted and be-
howled at,’ though there came a day when their warnings were
remembered: ‘ Thou knowest,’ writes William Lucas to his son
Francis on November 5, 1831, ‘ how much a practice it is after
dark for the boys to let off Gunpowder in the streets. A boy
in Hollow Lane nearly filled the tube of a bellows with powder,
having stopped up one end and then let it off. Whether it burst
or not I cannot ascertain, but the explosion was so loud and
the shock so great that without occasioning any apparent injury
externally he died almost immediately. He was about thy age.
THE FIRE BRIGADE 393
I hope this event may have some tendency to prevent a practice
which has long been a nuisance ’ (26). As a further precaution,
the Justices ventured to suppress bonfires too, but there again
they were worsted. On the next November 5th the indignant
youths of the parish tore up a fence which surrounded the acacia
trees at the Triangle, uprooted one of the trees and had a
prodigious bonfire in the Market Place. If there were to be any
more ‘ suppressions’ they threatened to have a still larger fire
the next year and burn magistrates and constables as well.
GUY FAWKES
It was a pity for the Newtons to waste their time over these
squibs and squabbles when more serious affairs were claiming
their attention. In 1817, as they were driving through Walsworth
on the way to a fire at Weston, the village roughs boarded the
engine and threw off fireman Dawborn, with the result that the
wheels passed over him and he was killed. Whereupon the
Newtons called a Town’s Meeting and the following resolutions
were adopted :—
1. That twenty-four men be appointed to work the engines
and assist in cases of fire.
394 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
2. That such men be remunerated for their services by the
Fire Offices in the usual manner.
3. That on any alarm of fire the men appointed repair to the
engine-house, and such of them as shall be named by
the Churchwardens or agents, do ride upon and attend
the engines.
4. That no other person than the men appointed be permitted
to ride on the engine.
5. That the Engineer be authorized to require such additional
assistance as he may deem necessary.
6. That these resolutions with the names of the men be
written on a board and placed in the engine-house.
Of still graver concern was the startling increase in the
number of incendiary fires throughout the eighteen-twenties and
thirties. ‘ People’s minds,’ writes William Lucas in December
1830, ‘ have been much alarmed at the unsettled state of the
country. Mobs of people, mostly agricultural, have assembled
and demanded higher wages. One extraordinary thing is the
many fires of farming premises that of late have happened
through wicked incendiaries who are supposed to have travelled
thro the country for that purpose. They began in Kent,
extended into Sussex and Hampshire, broke out in Essex and
Cambridgeshire and have occurred in some instances in our
neighbouring county of Bedford. ‘The only instance yet near
us is a wheat-cock belonging to T. Cockayne Esquire of Ickleford,
which stood by itself and was burnt. But we are in an uncom-
fortable state of alarm and obliged to keep a nightly watch over
our premises ’(28). In a later passage of his diary, written
after the disastrous fire of Wymondley Bury farm in 1833, he
refers to these crimes ‘as being not only cause of alarm and
terror, but also of sorrow for the depravity they exhibit of the
minds of the peasantry.’
The smouldering embers of that fire were a powerful argu-
ment for Isaac Newton when he came to ask the parish for
another horse-drawn engine. ‘Times were bad and money was
scarce, but when the fire devils were walking up and down the
land it was no time for ratepayers to sit down and haggle over
pounds, shillings and pence. ‘To relieve the rates, subscriptions
came pouring in. The Phoenix Office gave as muchas £20, and
smaller sums were received from the Sun, County, Royal Exchange
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and British Insurance Companies. At last the needful £150
was got in; and William Hull, with four horses and postillions
from the Sun Inn, rode up to Messrs. Shand, Mason & Co. of
London and fetched back the ‘ Hitchin Subscription Fire-engine,
1834,’ an improved patent carriage engine, with 7-inch barrels
and 84-inch stroke, fitted for thirty pumpers, the whole painted
vermilion and picked out with green (vi).
VI
The first fire which the new manual is known to have
attended was at Messrs. Tapp & Conder’s drapery store in
Hitchin Market Place on February 24, 1836. It proved to be
an unpropitious baptism of fire, for nothing was saved; Mrs.
Tapp, an old lady of eighty years, died of the shock. Apparently
the hose was found to be defective. In Samuel Lucas’s rapid
drawing of the fire which stands in the forefront of this chapter,
you can see the crowd proffering advice and getting in the
firemen’s way. Five days later another town’s meeting was
summoned, and a further {£50 subscribed for six coils of
24-inch hose, two lengths of 3-inch suction pipes and forty
additional buckets. Upon the committee appointed to ‘ make
the necessary arrangements in case of a future fire’ one sees
the names of Septimus Wright, John and Joshua Ransom, John
and William Hawkins, George Groom, Benjamin Tatham, Isaac
Newton, William Hainworth, ‘Thomas Lowden, Joseph Margetts
Pierson, William Langford and William Lucas.
The ‘future fires’ were not long in coming. In 1838
Charlton Wind Mill, set alight by its own friction, was burnt
to the ground. Two days later the roof of Widow Button’s
warehouse in Bucklersbury was blown sky-high by an explosion
of gunpowder. In 1842 ten more houses were lost in Hollow
Lane. But the greatest fire of the period was at Luton Hoo,
the seat of the Marquess of Bute, on December 2, 1843. For
fifty consecutive hours Isaac Newton with twenty-one firemen
fought the flames with the two ‘ great engines.” They can be
seen in the engraving that fronts this page. From the super-
intendent’s accounts we know that the firemen received 15s. each,
vi. The complete specification can be read in the Journal of the makers
under the date February 18, 1834. A copy can be seen amongst the collected
papers of Charles Loftus Barham.
396 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
and sixty-two assistant pumpers received 5s. each. Isaac New-
ton’s manuals therefore necessitated the employment of eighty-
three men. After the brigade returned to Newton’s yard six
men were set to work cleaning the engines and the hose, and
Mr. Prudden was given the job of ‘ repairing the fire-hook.’
In 1836 Isaac Brown, schoolmaster of Hitchin, had subscribed
£1 to the new coils of hose. Soon after midnight on Feb-
ruary 13, 1845, that same hose was playing on his school at Bull
Corner. William Langford, who had also given a pound towards
the same hose, had his warehouses involved in the same gigantic
fire. It was a pitiful, terrible scene. Little Quaker boys, scared
out of their wits, escaping in their nightshirts, to be taken out
of the bitter, frosty air into other friendly households soon
charitably wide-awake. Sheets of insatiable flame seeking new
worlds to conquer; sparks carried by the high wind on to the
thatched stables of the Half Moon Inn; and on once again to
consume the Lancastrian school. Horsemen sent galloping in
all directions to Offley, to Stevenage, to Baldock and to Luton.
Primitive engines arriving from the villages in still more primitive
wagons. Isaac Newton working his lines of hose from the horse-
pond, from the river in Bridge Street, and from the river again
in Dead Street, hoping against hope that he might save the
town (vii). In the grey light of the next morning a charred
heap of ruins and the mangled body of James Foot, crushed to
death by a falling wall.
Two other fires of the middle nineteenth century deserve to
be recorded. In the dead of night on February 2, 1850, horsemen
came clattering over the cobbles of Hitchin Market Place shouting
‘Fire! Fire!’ Hill at the Sun and Kershaw at the Swan were
soon out and about, rousing the firemen and postillions from
their sleep. There was a thundering on door after door in the
town. Casements were flung open and pale-faced citizens in
nightshirts and nightcaps leaned out to hear the dreadful news:
‘Hurry! hurry! All Ashwell is afire!’ There was a scampering
of half-dressed, half-asleep brigadiers down Bucklersbury, and
then the two great engines were seen rushing through the streets,
vii. Shortly after this fire, and evidently moved by his experience of 1t,
Newton printed a card of directions, showing where the best supplies of water
were to be found and their distances from any given spot. Here 1s a typical
entry: ‘ If the fire happen 1n Sun Street, water may be taken from the horse-
pond or the river; or if the river is dammed up in the Biggin Orchard, the
water will flow half-way up the Sun yard, whence a good supply can be had.’
THE FIRE BRIGADE 397
seven postillions urging on fourteen horses, and the twenty-two
firemen anxiously watching the glare in the sky. The rest is
silence, and then, after many hours, a bedraggled brigade returning
dead-weary and beaten, bringing back their catalogue of woe.
The houses and buildings of six farms, the produce of 1,400
acres, twenty-eight houses, three large maltings, and a chapel
were destroyed, and two hundred people were burned out of
house and home (949).
On March 22, 1853, a fire broke out, again at midnight, at
the timber-framed shop of John Gatward, ironmonger, adjoining
the Swan Inn. Gatward and his wife, who were sleeping peace-
fully at the back of the shop, did not realize their danger. Even
when roused they waited to dress themselves. ‘Then Gatward
proceeded to remove some of the gunpowder (over 130 pounds),
whilst his wife lingered upstairs to secure some of her valuables.
She was never seen again. A dense volume of smoke suddenly
burst out from below. One fireman after another staggered up
the stairs, only to reel back, overpowered. Gatward, though
half-suffocated, made agonizing attempts to reach his wife:
‘ Wife, come down! wife, come down!’ It was terrible to hear
his piteous and unavailing cries.
Meantime the townsfolk, frightened out of their beds, had
formed themselves into a double cordon of bucketeers, one line
from the horse-pond up Sun Street and the other line from the
river by the Biggin and past the Red Cow Inn. Their efforts
were all directed to stop the spreading of the fire, and in that
they succeeded. But Gatward’s shop was doomed; so was the
good woman whom everybody longed to save. Soon everything
was one seething cauldron of fire, and constant explosions of
gunpowder added to the inferno of the flames. It was for those
who witnessed it a night of terror, an unforgettable scene.
Vil
When Isaac Newton retired in 1851, after thirty-six years’
service, he was succeeded by William Jackson, under whose
superintendence the engine-house was moved to a range of
maltings opening into Wratten. In 1865 he had to cope with a
further outbreak of incendiary fires, all of them within the town
of Hitchin. The reward offered for information concerning an
attempt on the Post Office led to the arrest of a policeman named
398 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Scott, who was subsequently tried and acquitted at the Herts
Assizes. When another series of fires broke out in the parish
to which Scott had been removed, he was once more arrested,
and this time found to be guilty.
About the year 1866 Jackson was succeeded by James Lewin,
who held office till 1875, and proved a very efficient super-
intendent. One hears for the first time of a uniform for the
firemen, who hitherto had been distinguished only by their
armlets. Brass helmets were provided and leather belts. Once
again the engine-house was moved—this time, 1870, to a central
position in the Great yard, with its approach from the Market
Place. A new 6-inch manual, one of the early London Brigade
pattern for twenty-two pumpers, was purchased from Shand,
Mason & Co. in 1871 for £122. <A fire escape was presented
in 1872.
Isaac Chalkley, who took over from Lewin in 1875, was even
more efficient. In the rules which he issued on assuming office
it is made clear that ‘ the Captain has absolute and entire control
over every subject connected with the Brigade.’ ‘The duties of
members and officers are imperatively set forth. Any man ‘ not
complying ’ with the same, ‘ or showing insubordination, shall be
required to send in his resignation.’ But there were no resigna-
tions. ‘The new Captain proved to be a beneficent autocrat, and
throughout the twenty years of his reign his twelve men followed
him faithfully and gallantly into the thick of his fires.
Some of his eighty-five fires should be recorded. By the
first of these, on November 7, 1875, Hitchin lost one of its
landmarks in the windmill belonging to James Hack Tuke on
Windmill Hill. Here, as at Charlton, the friction caused by
running the stones when empty set the lower timbers afire, and
a hurricane of wind made salvage impossible. ‘The townspeople,
however, could not be brought to believe that the fire was
unquenchable, and, while the firemen stood by, hundreds of
them hurried up the hill with their own buckets of water and
dashed them on the flames. One little hero, aged six years,
rushed up and down at least twenty times with his toy pail, and
burst into floods of tears when the round-house fell. Three
years later, February 21, 1878, the Langford family suffered a
third time in the destruction of their warehouses in Sun Street
and Bucklersbury; and but for the ‘ extraordinary devotion to
duty ’ shown by Edwin Logsdon and Charles Loftus Barham
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THE FIRE BRIGADE 399
all that quarter of the town would have been lost. At Willian
Manor in 1881 the engines were in action for three consecutive
days. At Lodge Farm, Ippollitts, on November 5th the same
year the brigade had to fight not only the flames but the villagers,
who, inflamed with drink and furious at not being invited to
assist, opened an onion pit and pelted the firemen with that
insulting vegetable. The memory of that obnoxious scene has
been whimsically preserved by the addition of onions ever since
to the menu of the annual dinners of the brigade (viu1).
At 11.30 p.m. on December 30, 1886, when the snow was a
foot deep on the highways and drifts concealed the hedges, the
brigade was called to three incendiary fires at once. In 1887
Charlton Mill perished in the flames, the mill-house only being
saved. In 1889 Grove Mill, alias Burnt Mill, was burnt for the
third time. Temple Dinsley was saved in 1888, and Matthew
Foster’s timber-yard was gutted in 1891.
Vill
Chalkley’s captaincy is memorable for two innovations. It
was he who first appointed that the annual meeting and supper
of the brigade should be held on November sth. A curious day
to choose, because there have been more fires on that day than
any other in the year. And it was bound to be so. ‘Those
grandmotherly orders of the magistrates about fireworks and
bonfires had made not the least impression upon the licensed
uproar on Gunpowder ‘T'reason day; the gigantic bonfires in
the Market Square singeing the very shops; the troops of
tatterdemalions racing madly with their fire-balls down the
narrow streets; the efhgy of old Guido blazing on every hill;
the night made hideous with the yell of those ribald lines which
the ranters had framed as a hymn of hate for the Pope :—
*‘ Holler, boys, holler; make the bells ring;
Holler, boys, holler; God save the King.
A rope, a rope to hang the Pope,
A slice of cheese to choke him,
A gallon of beer to drink his health
And a jolly good fire to roast him.’
viii. At another Ippollitts fire the ungrateful villagers refused the use of
their own wells: ‘ Bring your own water,’ they exclaimed ; ‘ this belongs to us:
They deserved their fate. One of the villagers had to jump from a bedroom
window with his dearest possession, a grandfather clock, clasped in his arms.
400 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
In the old days the watchmen and firemen had stood to arms
in the open doorway of St. Mary’s tower, ready for the fires and
the fracas that were sure to come; in the meantime munching
the immemorial pork-pasty and nearly setting themselves on fire
with Lucas’s sparkling ale. That light snack was well enough;
but a long menu on tables spread in an upper room at the Angel
was not so well. It is grievous to think how many excellent
meals have had to be left uneaten in that inn; how often the
diners have had to pass out of the frying-pan into the fire. Here
is a characteristic entry in the minute-book: ‘ Nov. 5. Call to
Bendish at 9. Mr. William Francis Langford,’ the solitary
guest, ‘ was left with the remains of the supper.’ After the
supper, if no call came through, the firemen would look on, or
lend a hand in one of those carnivals for which in the eighteen-
sixties and seventies Hitchin was renowned. The London
reporters who came down seem surprised that this old-fashioned
town, ‘ with its business spécialité of making tombstones,’ should
so cheerfully disport itself. It was true the few Catholics and
the many Quakers held themselves rigidly within doors. But
all the rest were abroad, and most of them fearfully and wonder-
fully arrayed. ‘'The most aristocratic shops,’ says the special
correspondent of The Times, ‘ —we should rather say emporiums
—in the High street affected at first a lofty indifference to the
féte; but they soon waxed simply human, and disgorged their
young ladies and gentlemen to loiter on doorsteps and gaze upon
the throng.’
‘And then the rain fell and (always for those who did zot
belong to Hitchin) all was mud and misery. ‘To the elect whom
Hitchin can call its own the rain mattered little. ‘The town was
getting lively in spite of the elements. Country visitors began
to arrive and create an immense hubbub at the Crown, the Angel
and the rest of the ultra-select hostelries. Still, there was
nothing to see. Hitchin had not gone in for abundant decora-
tion, the only banner it seemed to affect being one that bore
the laudably simple motto, ‘‘ Success to the Hitchin Carnival.”’
Youthful warriors in cocked hats that looked woefully like last
year’s newspapers derided the Pope and all his works in tumul-
tuous bands, and playfully saluted the passing stranger with
festive squibs. Brass bands, too, whereof the performers wore
gorgeous national costumes of their own invention, began to
discourse sweet music in the Market-place and parade the High
THE FIRE BRIGADE 401
street and through humbler parallel thoroughfares that look like
the Dunmow of the Flitch of Bacon days—uneven, red-bricked
(Hitchin generally looks as though it had had a recent violent
attack of scarlatina), with protruding upper stories, pointed
gables, and frowning eaves. By seven o’clock the town had
filled—and filled, we fear, without the aid of the Metropolis.
The average Londoner is too weary to travel forty miles on a
rainy day, even to see an old-world town hold its annual revels.
No, the pleasure-seekers were simple country-folk who flocked
in in primitive gig, creaking cart, and cumbersome van, their
babies on their knees, their wives at their sides, red-cloaked—
themselves gorgeous, with those wonderful prismatic cravats and
flowery waistcoats your British villager alone knows how to
discover, for Sunday wear, christenings, and weddings.’
‘ The festival was going to be peculiarly musical in character,
so it was appropriately opened by the united bands of Hitchin
and Welwyn, which were commendably united in more than one
sense, and entertained us in the Market-place with a variety of
airs that almost extended from ‘‘ Pop goes the weasel ”’ to the
** Dead March ”’ in Saul, from seven o’clock to half-past. Being
such a very musical town, perhaps Hitchin has a surfeit of sweet
sounds every day of its melodious life; at any rate, it seemed
chiefly interested in the bands as an entrée en matiére—the
matiére being a general illumination with coloured fires, the
preparations for which were observed with truly provincial
intentness. And verily, in their preparation, the townsfolk
showed excellent and super-provincial taste. We have seen the
two most magnificent cities of Europe ablaze from end to end,
the Champs Elysées a fairyland of lamps and fires and flowers,
the Unter den Linden a vista radiant as Jacob’s Ladder; but,
thus suddenly revealed by many coloured lights, the quaint old
town had, perhaps, a rarer and more potent charm. And when
Mr. Sabin’s lime-light was brought to play upon its red roofs
and irregular fagades, an onlooker with an eye to the picturesque
must have become reconciled to provincialism on the spot.’
‘These were but the bagatelles de la porte, however. ‘There
was Mr. Pain’s grand display of fire-works to be admired, cried
at, and applauded. ‘The Exhibition consisted of forty-six pieces
—rockets, shells, shower ‘‘ devices,’’ all the marvels of the
pyrotechnist’s cabinet—and we have seen at the Alexandra Palace
what wonders Mr. Pain’s cabinet can emit at times. ‘The crowds
VOL. Il. cc
402 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
along the High street, in the Market-place, at the little anti-
quated casements and more modern balconies, gazed open-
mouthed at the gyration of wheels and spreading of rubies,
diamonds, and what-not. The whole display to them was as
wonderful, complicated, incomprehensible as a vast page of
Celestial shorthand. And when the final motto went up,
‘‘ Prosperity to the ‘Town of Hitchin,” I think they were almost
relieved—the splendour had been too much. A gorgeous torch-
light procession of a thousand masqueraders was to be the
feature of the evening, and, despite an occasional drizzle, despite
the slippery stones under foot and the misty air around, the
masqueraders were not disappointed. As to the characters, it
would be difficult to speak precisely. But who among us cared
for such small details as historical fidelity and artistic harmony ?
The procession looked as though it had kept its wardrobes at
Mme. Tussaud’s, the Tower, Drury-lane Theatre, and Ratcliff-
highway. It started from Bancroft (an outskirt), and paraded
the principal streets of the town, under a fierce glare of lime-
light. There were sailors, then came “‘ the magnificent banner
of the Hitchin Carnival Club ”; dancing shakers, who made
themselves extremely popular; crusaders, and ten little niggers;
the Prince of Wales, surrounded by Rajahs; Dr. Kenealy, with
an immense umbrella; icebergs, clowns, and columbines; in fine,
a grotesque, impossible, and delightful ollapodrida of the absurd,
the heroic, the sentimental, and patriotic. And on the skirts of
it all the good townfolks hurrahed, let off squibs, courted and
feasted on the slippery footway and in the miry road. The
Carnival terminated in a monster flight of fire balloons, during
which Dr. Kenealy (the doctor does not seem to be eminently
popular in the district) (ix) ascended from the Market square,
emitting fiery sparks in lieu of the proverbial dewdrop. We left
the pleasant old town ruddy in the light of a gigantic bonfire—a
fitting termination to the Carnival Guy Fawkes Day.’
IX
Chalkley’s other innovation was a_ steam fire-engine, a
260-gallon machine of the London Brigade vertical pattern,
ix. Not unnaturally; for Kenealy was leading counsel for the claimant in
the Tichborne Case, whereas Henry Hawkins of Hitchin was making his name
as counsel on the other side. Kenealy, for his amazing conduct in the Tichborne
Case, was disbarred in 1874.
THE FIRE BRIGADE 403
which was acquired by public subscription in 1887, most of the
money being collected by the brigade. It was christened the
‘St. George,’ and by the Stevenage people in envy ‘the old
coffee-pot.? On June 23rd the Hitchin fire brigade, on their
new steamer, had the honour of passing in review before Queen
Victoria at Windsor, all the firemen being presented with medals
by command of Her Majesty. In November of that year Chalkley
and his men figured again in the Lord Mayor’s procession.
Chalkley, with his long white beard, was mistaken by the crowd
for the famous Captain Shaw and received a great ovation.
GSU 3
‘WHERE IS THE FIRE?
The diminution of fires which followed the purchase of the
steamer is significant. So long as pumpers were required for
manual engines, and so long as a fire meant plenty of beer for
them, so long would fires break out in towns and villages. That
is the suggestion, and it is one made not only by the cynics but
by firemen, too. ‘They knew something of that ‘ depravity in the
minds of the peasantry ’ over which William Lucas had lamented.
They knew scores of yokels and potwallopers who would commit
arson for the chance of a pint of beer. It is certain, at any rate,
that the temperance movement received an unconscious ally
when steam was substituted for manual power.
404 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Not so many fires, but just as many calls. Indeed, the
firemen were constantly being fetched out of their beds on a
false or frivolous alarm. For example, there was that odd
creature, Henry Jermyn of Cock Street, draper, who, according
to Francis Lucas, ‘ suffered much from soreness of chin and
shortness of sight. One night, as he was looking at his chin
before going to bed, he accidentally set fire to the tassel of his
night-cap, which occasioned him great alarm as, on going away
from the glass, he saw the light and the sparks, but could not
see from whence they came. It is said that he put his head out
of the window and called ‘ Fire !’’ ’ (966. 91).
Then there was George Lewin, the town constable, who,
whenever he was getting the worst of it with the drunken mob
in Dead Street, was accustomed to call out ‘ Fire!’. It was an
ingenious method of summoning assistance, but rather igno-
minious for the brigade to find on arrival that they were only
needed to hose a few red-nosed fire-eaters into sobriety. ‘Then,
again, there were those blue-stockings at Benslow, always up to
mischief. In 1872, when Rachel Susan Cook (afterwards Mrs.
C. P. Scott) took her tripos at Cambridge, the girls climbed on
to the roof and rang the alarm bell with such vigour that the
engines were rushed out (993.274). On another occasion, as
recently as 1903, the brigade was called to Russell’s Slipe, only
to find, on reaching that difficult suburb with the fire-escape,
that there was a rabbit-hutch on fire.
In addition to these vexations there were those tiresome
ratepayers who ‘ wanted to know’ why the firemen didn’t put
out each and every fire, and who at the same time did all they
could to oppose the purchase of new appliances. It was the old
tale over again :—
‘When fire rages and danger is nigh,
‘To God and the firemen people cry.
The fire over, danger averted,
God 1s forgotten, firemen slighted.’
On January 21, 1880, the second officer, being something of
a sportsman, took the engine to Lax’s pond and flooded the ice.
‘ The next thing we shall hear,’ writes a scandalized inhabitant to
the Herts Express, ‘ is that the engine has been used for window-
cleaning, and for watering the streets during the summer months.’
In 1895, after twenty-eight vears’ service, the veteran Chalkley
THE FIRE BRIGADE 405
relinquished his command, and Edwin Logsdon reigned in his
stead. This also was a memorable reign, for Logsdon in his
seventeen years’ tenure of office is generally admitted to have
brought the Hitchin brigade to a pitch of excellence unsurpassed
by any other country brigade. One hears of the installation of
electric fire-alarms, the introduction of monthly drills and monthly
inspection of hydrants, the purchase of new hose, new uniforms,
a curricle fire-escape, and, to commemorate the Coronation of
Edward VII, the building of the present fire station in Paynes
Park (x). ‘These were the outward and visible signs of a man
whose heart and soul were in the work, and who was constantly
adding to his skill as a fire-fighter by association with the London
Fire Brigade. With Second Officer Barham, Logsdon was fre-
quently ‘ out’ with the engines of the Metropolis, then under
the control of Superintendent Pearce; and Pearce, in his turn,
was frequently at Hitchin inspecting Logsdon and his men.
The only criticism ever made of this captain was in itself a
tribute to his zeal. ‘ Fire appliances are best in use,’ he blurted
out on one celebrated occasion; ‘ the sooner we have another job
the better.” That is a sentiment that lurks in every fireman’s
breast, but is not often uttered or expressed. It was certainly
unwise of Logsdon to give expression to it, for he had none of
the arts which enable a practised writer to say atrocious things
in a safely ambiguous style; with him the hose was mightier
than the pen. In the result he raised a hornet’s-nest of outraged
ratepayers. ‘ Are there not enough people committing arson in
the world already,’ they cried, ‘ without being encouraged, not
to say aided and abetted, by the Hitchin fire brigade?’ I for
my part took him at his word and sent him a list of six unsightly
shops and public buildings I wished to have destroyed. But I
was disappointed. I waited and waited; but there was no out-
break of incendiarism after all; and slowly the embers of righteous
indignation smouldered away.
In 1912, after fifty-one years’ service as a fireman, Captain
Logsdon died, as he had hoped to die, in harness, and had a
fireman’s funeral. As they were leaving the fire station the fire
x. It is worth recording that Logsdon, Barham and other members of the
brigade collected over £600 towards the cost of the fire station, leaving another
£111 only to fall upon the rates. The station was opened on August 20, 1904,
by Lawson Thompson as Chairman of the H.U.D.C. The speeches on that
occasion, which may be read 1n the Herts Express, are full of the past history
of the brigade (947).
406 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
alarm rang loudly, and a dash was made to the Market Place to
discover who had need of the firemen’s services. But the alarms
were intact. The telephones were examined later by the postal
authorities, but no reason for the alarm was found. It was a
strange occurrence, and one inclined to be superstitious (xi) might
well imagine that the spirit of the old captain had thus summoned
the comrades he loved so well to help him answer the last ‘ call ’
he would respond to as a fireman.
Charles Loftus Barham, who succeeded Logsdon, was an
engineer of wide experience on land and sea. His experience as
a fireman extended over fifty years (xii), and in that period he
attended over three hundred fires. ‘There was something almost
personal about his regard for the engines. He could not bear
to leave them, or let any other person touch them. Nor would
he leave his parish either, lest a call should come through and he
should not be there. For the last thirty-four years of his life
he refused to spend a single night away from Hitchin. Such
devotion to duty deserved its reward, and it came in an appro-
priate form. In the last three years of Barham’s life his soul
was satisfied with three immense conflagrations such as Logsdon
should have lived to see. That at the military hospital, Wrest
Park, in the last year of the war, engaged the services of ten
brigades; but Barham and his men had the honour of being
retained when the others were dismissed, and their firemanship
earned the unstinted admiration of Superintendent Burrows of
London, who was standing by. At the burning of Ickleford
Manor in 1919, when some £50,000 worth of damage was
done, the Hitchin engine played on the fire for six consecutive
hours, a ton of water being hurled on the mansion every minute.
In spite of falling tons of masonry and streams of molten lead,
which destroyed whole lengths of hose, the firemen stood to it
xi. That firemen are superstitious 1s well known. They hold, for example,
that fires occur in a series of three, a superstition which our records undoubtedly
support. And they do not laugh at those who say that the appearance of a hare
in the streets of a town is an infallible omen of a fire.
xu. See the account of his jubilee as a fireman in the Herts Express of
August 6, 1921. This was written by his son, also named Charles Loftus
Barham, and gives valuable particulars of the principal fires 1m the district
from 1871 to 1921 (954).
THE FIRE BRIGADE 407
gallantly, and finally subdued the flames. At the third fire,
which broke out at Danesbury House, Welwyn, on September 6,
1920, the efforts of the Hitchin, Welwyn and Hertford brigades
were seriously impeded by the lack of water. The Hitchin
steamer was worked from the River Mimram, over 1,200 feet
away from and several hundred feet below the level of the
mansion. Damage was done to the extent of £35,000.
It had always been Barham’s aspiration ‘to die a fireman,’
and when he answered his last call in 1921 that wish was brought
to pass. One feels it would be fitting to close with this survivor
of the ‘ old brigade.’ If we linger at all, it is only to name the
captains appointed since his day: J. ‘T. Chalkley, the efficient son
of an efficient father, 1921; Arthur Foster, 1922; John Davey,
1922; Jacob Reynolds, 1926; Donald Powell, 1928; and to note
the purchase of a 4 5-horse-power Mercedes motor tractor, carrying
1,950 feet of hose, in 1917; a new ‘ double vertical’ variable
expansion steamer, of 350-gallon size, from Shand, Mason & Co.
in 1918; and a Morris Guy, 150—200-gallon engine fitted with a
turbine pump, in 1924.
As the historian of this ancient and inflammable town, my
last word undoubtedly should be one of gratitude. But for the
Hitchin ‘ ingenears,’ but for the Hitchin Fire Establishment, but
for the Hitchin Fire Brigade, I should have been writing of
antiquities long since consumed by fire, making the best of a
mere modernity like Stevenage or Biggleswade or Potton. 'Time
and again they have saved those Tudor and Jacobean buildings
which are an historian’s title-deeds. For centuries they have
been safeguarding those muniment chambers in our mansions,
those cupboards and lumber rooms in our Quaker habitations,
where I have discovered the most precious of all my documents.
But for them this History itself, with the thirty portfolios of
notes—the slow ingathering of how many studious years !—that
have gone to its making, might all have perished in one appalling
night (xiii). It is that which has moved me to go beyond the
appointed limits of this book and pay my tribute—however
halting and imperfect—to these guardians of our homes, these
preservers of our peace.
xiii. I have never been able to forget what happened at Luton, only nine
mules away. ‘There on July 19, r9rg, the citizens went temporarily mad and
sacked and burned their own Town Hall. The loss of the Corporation
Records nearly broke the heart of William Austin, F.S.A., who was then
engaged on his History of Luton.
CHRONOLOGY:
*°Tis time to observe occurrences and let nothing remarkable escape us ;
the supinity of elder days hath left so much to silence, or time hath so
martyred the records, that the most industrious heads do find no easy work
to erect a new Britannia.’—S1r THOMAS BROWNE.
Sag) HE disadvantage of a narrative in subject
wail form is that one has to dodge about, now
forward, now backward, now sideways, as
li the theme’s necessity decrees. Such a
ii method has advantages; one explores
. ij Many a beguiling byway and sojourns at
Ve many an ancient and garrulousinn. But
Nii there is no continuous progress upon the
plain highway of history, with milestones
and signposts to encourage the reader,
aid the ioe Finis from the beginning full in view at the orderly,
inevitable end. ‘The lack of these forthright qualities is still more
apparent with writers like myself, who am obliged to confess along
with Roger North, the prince of historiographers, that ‘ I have
not always the punctualities of truth at my command, and may
have erred in some points of chronography.’ ‘That is the reason,
at all events, why I have thought it safer to set down here in
processional order, precisely and without comment, the stubborn
facts that have gone to make up the life-tale of this parish. Many
of these were too stubborn to be shaped into the formal structure
of this book, but they have an interest and value all their own
which it would be foolish to overlook. Moreover, in the long-
drawn-out pageant of fifteen hundred years, which this chronology
affords, the oddest events seem somehow to fall into line with
the rest, their crude colours and wild apparel growing subdued
in the general company, and sinking down at last into the quiet
harmony of the whole.
Here, at all events, the curious spectator may trace, as it were
step by step, such progress as this old township has struggled to
attain from its beginnings until now. At first, in but a ghostly
glimmer or twilight of memory as the gigantic body of Hicca
looms out of the mist and lurches down the Icknield Way, or
i. I wish to express my indebtedness to William Onslow Times, C. J.
Widdows and C. L. Barham for assisting in the compilation of this chapter.
z£[gi ‘sapyong oO ‘*f[ 4q B3uruied & worl
MAFIA NOVA SWUV ,SYHdOO) AHL
CHRONOLOGY 409
as one tries to catch what the bondmen are murmuring to each
other as they drive their ox-teams up and down the furrows in
the Bury Field, or the tittle-tattle of the women at their spindles,
or the hogs grunting and grubbing for beech-mast underneath
the trees—all made so faint and difficult for modern eyes by the
deadly iridescence of the past. Very slowly the darkness begins
to recede and lets in some rays of sunlight upon the dim avenues
of the past, but hardly at all before the death of Richard I, in
whose heroic but unmethodical days the records were so vilely
kept that antiquaries have been forced to fix there and then the
limits of discoverable truth, the utmost backward of the time
‘ whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.’
Thereafter one lights with more certainty upon the solid
lumber of the House of Fame; and by the fourteenth century
not only lumber of palaces and court-leets and country manors,
but cottage-lumber too, the common stuff of plain humanity.
And so, marshalled with more regular array, the pageant moves
slowly forward, with a firmer tread and a greater concourse of
people, famous and infamous together, onward to these latter
times when all that men do and say is chronicled, whether it be
good or whether it be evil.
In the midst of modernity, however, we must be careful to
call nothing common or unclean; for each insignificant event in
the infinite mosaic of history has its unfading colour and its
perpetual function and effect. After all, the Dark Ages are
behind us and the way lies ahead. Man, holding a doubtful
fate in his hands, struggles forward through the gathering light
to an end not yet in view. The philosopher would say he is
hardly yet upon his feet, has scarcely begun to live. Who
knows? It may be that this full-length history of a town we
honour as so ancient is but the babbling incoherence of its infancy,
the stammering prelude of a greatness still to be.
B.C. 55. The district of Hitchin, at this time inhabited by the
tribe of the Catuvellauni, formed part of Belgic Britain
under the rule of the same king as Belgic Gaul, and,
soon after the invasions of Caesar (55 and 54 B.c.) and the
storming of Cassivellaunus’s stronghold, fell under the
rule of the British king Tasciovanus, his son, whose
capital was at Verulamium (near St. Albans), and, after him,
of his son Cunobelinus (the Cymbeline of Shakespeare).
410
A.D. 43.
62.
193-
392.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
A copper coin of Cunobelinus has been found in a garden
at Walsworth, and British urns of a rude type at the
top of Benslow Hill (55. 431).
After the campaigns of Aulus Plautius and Claudius and
the defeat of Caractacus, the son of Cunobelinus, the
district about Hitchin came under direct Roman rule
(55. 428).
The Catuvellauni tribe about Hitchin joined in the
revolt of the Iceni under Queen Boadicea. Having
sacked the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester),
they retreated eastward and stood to fight the disastrous
battle with Suetonius on a site conjectured by some
historians to be between Hitchin and King’s Walden.
Tacitus states that there was a forest at the rear of the
Romans who came from London, and an open plain in
front, which description, as Middlesex and most of
Herts down to our borders was then forest, seems to
point to our open country (55. 428).
In a part of the open fields called the Fox-holes there
was discovered about 1875 a Roman cemetery with a
large number of sepulchral urns, dishes, brooches,
knife-blades, bronze ornaments, bracelets and coins of
Severus (A.D. 193-211), Carausius (A.D. 293), Alletus
(A.D. 296) and Constantine (A.D. 323-337). ‘The Potters’
names on the Samian ware discovered are Camius
(A.D. 69-96), Lorius (circa A.D. 75), Montanus (a.p.
69-96), Ninus (A.D. 69-96), Paterclus (A.D. 80~120),
Reburrus (A.D. 140-190) and Sambinianus (A.D. go—150).
In 1884 William Ransom, F.S.A., unearthed a Roman
villa at Purwell, on the eastern side of Hitchin. Alto-
gether seven rooms were excavated, including the
sudatorium or Turkish bath, the laconicum or vapour
bath, the tepidarium or warm bath and a large room
used for worship or for conducting the business of the
house. Several of the walls were of herring-bone design,
and some of the principal rooms were floored with tiles
of a red pattern with parallel white lines and gridironed
in the centre. Amongst the debris were found the bones
of many wild and domestic animals, oyster shells, forty
coins ranging from A.D. 193-392, bone pins,a band for a
lady’s hair, a stylus for writing on wax, a key, a bronze
z€gi ‘soyong ‘oO f[ Aq Surmesp & wor
AYISNIG FIdWaAL
ow oe
571.
758.
792-
878.
885.
g10.
944-
980.
1062.
1086.
IIIs.
1147.
CHRONOLOGY rt
steelyard and a curious perforated lid which was probably
the top of a scent jar. A full description of the villa,
and an account of other Roman remains in the vicinity
of Hitchin, was published by William Ransom in the
Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society,
vol. iv, pt. 2, July 1886, pp. 39-48.
The country about Hitchin was conquered by the West
Saxons; probably in the campaign noted in the Saxon
Chronicle when ‘ Cuthwulf fought with the Brit-weals at
Bedcanford (Bedford) and took four towns’ (55. 428).
Offa built a palace at Hitchin after his battle with Beornred
(Vol. I, 69).
Offa founded a religious house at Hitchin (Vol. I, 69).
At the treaty of Wedmore between Alfred and the Danes,
the district of Hitchin was allotted to the kingdom of the
Danish king Guthrum; in 937 it was again West Saxon
territory.
Hitchin chosen to give its name to the Half-Hundred then
formed by King Alfred.
Offa’s monastery and part of the town destroyed by fire
(Vol. I, 70).
7Ethelgifu bequeathed certain lands at Langford to
/Elfnoth on condition that he gave three days’ provisions
every year to the tribe of Hicca (Vol. IT, 357).
At this period the district of Hitchin, together with the
shires of Hertford, Bedford, Cambridge, Huntingdon and
Northampton, formed the earldormanry of A:thelwine of
East Anglia. Ecclesiastically it lay within the diocese of
Dorchester (Oxon).
Harold gave ‘ Hitchche and all field, pastures, meadows,
woods and waters ’ to Waltham Abbey (Vol. I, 26).
Hitchin entered in Domesday Book (Vol. I, 27).
The north side of the church destroyed by a hurricane
(Vol. I, 72).
At the Chapter of the Templars, in the round Church of
the Templars in Paris, Bernard de Baliol, Lord of Hitchin,
granted to the Knights of the Temple of Solomon fifteen
librates (about 780 acres) ‘ of my land which I possess in
England in perpetuity, freely and without any custom,
Wedelee by name, which is a member of Hitchin; fields
rough and smooth, streams with woodland. And I make
412
1237.
1292.
1292.
1305.
1308.
1311.
1317.
1321.
1332.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
this gift in the Chapter which was held at Paris in the
Octaves of Easter, the Apostolic Legate Eugenius being
present; and the King of France, and the Archbishops of
Sens, Bordeaux, Rouen and Trascunnie and one hundred
and thirty brethren, Knights of the Temple, arrayed in
white cloaks.’ Wedelee was the early name for Pres-
ton (ii) (155. 73).
The chronicler Matthew Paris relates: ‘ Concerning a
certain marvellous hailstorm and deluge in the daytime.
In that same year, the Sunday before Pentecost, in the
Chiltern district not far from the little town called Hicce,
hail fell which was seen to exceed the size of wild apples;
even sheep were prostrated, and rain-storms followed it
daily.’
The church partially destroyed by lightning and six years
later by an earthquake (Vol. I, 74).
John de Baliol, Lord of the Manor, crowned King of
Scotland (Vol. I, 37).
The church rebuilt (Vol. I, 75).
The six Knight-Templars resident at Dinsley were arrested,
two of them being sent to the Tower and the remaining
four to Hertford Castle. The Order was suppressed in
1312. Twelve years later the Knights of St. John took
possession of Temple Dinsley.
By Royal command the town sent ten quarters of wheat,
fifteen quarters of oats and ten hogs to Berwick-on-T weed
for the use of the King (Edward II) in his war with
Scotland (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1307-13, p. 81; 53. 19).
Hitchin Priory founded (Vol. I, 126).
The town furnished twelve footmen-at-arms for the general
hosting of the war against the Scots and Robert Bruce their
King. All contumacious persons evading payment of war
service were ordered to be arrested (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1321-4,
p- 38; 53- 21).
Hitchin town dispatched three archers to aid Edward
1i, Owing to lack of space the chapter on Temple Dinsley intended for this
work has had to be abandoned. All the principal events, however, are recorded
in this Chronology or elsewhere 1n this volume. ‘The student who wishes to
know more may be referred to the full-length account 1n the Manor of Hitchin,
by Wentworth Huyshe (Macmillan), 1906. An admurably illustrated account
of the mansion by Sir Lawrence Weaver appeared 1n Country Lsfe, April 22,
IQII.
HITCHIN FROM THE AIR, 1927
Showing Bucklersbury, Sun Street, and the Market Square
1337-
1342.
1346.
1349.
1350.
1362.
1375-
1399.
I410.
CHRONOLOGY 413
Baliol in his claim to the Kingdom of Scotland. They
fought in the decisive Battle of Perth (53. 22).
All the bows and arrows in the hands and custody of the
workmen of the town were purchased for the King’s use,
and delivered to John de Thorpe, King’s clerk, for urgent
use in the war with Ireland (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1334-8, p. 524;
53+ 25).
The wool-merchants of Hitchin supplied five sacks of wool,
their proportion of the county levy, to Master Paul de
Monte Florum, a Jew who had financed the King’s war in
France, ‘ for the redemption of the King’s great crown and
certain other jewels’ then in pledge to him (Cal. Close
Rolls, 1341-3, p. 558; 53. 26).
Writ to the Bailiff, goodmen and commonalties of Hych
to array two men-at-arms without delay, and cause them to
be brought to Portsmouth so that they might be there on
the Sunday in mid-Lent at the latest. N.B.—The Battle
of Crecgy was fought in August. Along with the two men-
at-arms went Andrew Hytchen, a Carmelite friar from
Hitchin Priory, who served as chaplain, and was subse-
quently rewarded by King Edward III ‘for his good
services in the war of France.’
The Black Death was so severe at Hitchin that one of the
streets was afterwards given the name of Dead Street
(Vol. I, 42).
About this time the trestle stalls on the lower or south side
of the great open market began to take on a more fixed and
permanent character. ‘The encroachment spread until by
1450 the whole space between what is now Sun Street and
Bucklersbury was lost to the market and covered with
timbered and tiled shops. See the view from the air of
this densely packed district, where the house-tops are still
reminiscent of the canopies of the original stalls.
Sir Edward de Kendale founded a religious house of the
Gilbertine Order at the Biggin (Vol. I, 150).
The manor granted to Alice Perrers, mistress of Edward ITI
(Vol. I, 38).
Peter Stokes, famous Carmelite preacher, died (Vol. I,
137).
A cloth-making industry established in Hitchin about this
time.
414
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
1415. At the field of Agincourt, Edward, Duke of York, the Lord
of Hitchin Manor, was killed. He had been given the post
of honour as leader of the vanguard. The rear was com-
manded by Thomas Beaufort, youngest son of John of
Gaunt, who in right of his wife was Lord of Maydencroft
Manor. Several of the inhabitants of Hitchin Hundred
fought as gentlemen-at-arms or archers in Sir Walter
Hungerford’s famous Company. There was Nicholas
Poyntz of Hexton; Henry Croke, brother of the Rector
of Lilley; Wanter of Charlton; John Rous, whose ancestor
Adam had been a benefactor to the Priory; Richard Lye,
a chaplain attached to Hitchin Church; and John 'Trystram,
who held the post of ‘ Purveyor to the King’s Household,
King’s Falconer and Contrarimator,’ i.e. beater on the
other side of a river when the King went hawking.
1450— Building of the South Chapel and extension of the chancel
1460.
1453
1475
1487
1493
1500
circa
1508
of the Church (Vol.1I,81). See Buckler’s drawing opposite
this page.
Insurrection at Hitchin under the leadership of John
Sturgeon (Vol. I, 40).
Foundation of the Hitchin Brotherhood or Gild (Vol. I,
82).
Ten archers sent by Hitchin town to aid the King,
Henry VII, in suppressing Lambert Simnel’s rebellion
(53- 30).
Ralph Austrey or Ostrich of Hitchin was this year Lord
Mayor of London. He was a member of the Fishmongers’
Company and afterwards knighted by Henry VIII.
Building of the south porch of St. Mary’s (Vol. I, 89).
Fifty-two Hitchin men went off to serve in the war with
Scotland under the command of Sir Thomas Lovell.
William Pulter, the only gentleman required to serve, sent
two men-at-arms to fight in his place (MSS. of the Duke
of Rutland, K.G., vol. iv, 563).
1523— Henry VIII narrowly escaped burning and drowning at
1525.
1537:
Hitchin (Vol. IT, 243).
Letter from Sir Francis Bryan to Thomas Cromwell
referring to the plague, which then raged through the
country (‘they die here in every corner’), stating that
Hitchin is as yet clear, and it would be safe for the King to
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ST MARY’S VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-EAST
From a drawing by J. C. Buckler, 1832
1538.
1539-
1540.
1542.
1544.
1575:
1576.
1$77-
CHRONOLOGY 415
come there on his way to London (L. & P. Hen. VIII, 12,
pt. 2, 275).
Surrender of the Gilbertine Convent at the Biggin by
Prior Mounton (Vol. I, 159).
Surrender of the Rectory of Hitchin by the Abbess of
Elstow and of the Priory by Prior Butler (Vol. I, 95,
144).
At the invitation of Henry VIII, Ralph Radcliffe set up
his school at Hitchin Priory (Vol. I, 147).
Grant of ‘Temple Dinsley to Sir Ralph Sadler (79. 10).
Ten Hitchin men under John Pulter went to take their
part in the capture of Boulogne. ‘They were shipped from
Harwich, for, as the State Papers say, ‘they die sore at
Dover and Rye.’ ‘The next year a‘ benevolence ’ was levied
on the town and county for the maintenance of the war
with France and for the reinforcement of ‘ Bologne much
decayed by deth.” Some wheat was also sent from Hitchin
market, and orders posted there from the Privy Council
against ‘ such as store corn for their private lucre ’ (53. 36).
. Possessions of the Hitchin Brotherhood or Gild seized into
the King’s hands and sold (Vol. I, 96).
In the last three months of this year, according to an entry
in the parish registers, fifty inhabitants of Hitchin perished
of the plague. As their names are not recorded amongst
the burials, it is supposed that the victims were interred,
not in the churchyard, but in a pit elsewhere.
The tolls of Hitchin Market, the two fairs and two mills
were reported to be of the value of £40 per annum. The
mill called Malt Mill, leased to Ralph Radcliffe, was valued
at {£7 by the year.
John of Hitchin ordered to furnish for the wars in the
Netherlands ‘twelve hable and sufficient persons, being
of agilitie and honest of behaviour between the age of
XIX and XLI yeres, which are fit to be trayned for
harquebus shott, everye one of them havynge a morrion, a
sworde and dagger and a caliver with sufficient furniture
and powder for the same.’ ‘The Certificate of the Musters
in the County of Hertford this year gives the following
return for the Half-Hundred of Hitchin: ‘ Hablemen 234,
hablemen trayned 9, corselletes 13, almain rivetts 8, cotes
of plate 6, murryons 13, saletts and steel capps 26, pikes 13,
416
1588.
1588.
1601.
1632.
1636.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
blackbills and halberds 20, callivers and harquebutts 13,
longebowes 26, sheves of arrowes 26’ (Cal. S.P.D. Eliz.,
vol. cxvii, No. 7).
The sum of £19 6s. 4d. was collected in Hitchin towards
the fitting out of the English Fleet against the coming of
the Spanish Armada.
28 July. The Trained Bands of the county being selected
to serve as the bodyguard for the Queen’s person, the
Hitchin contingent under the command of Captain, after-
wards Sir, Rowland Lytton, marched to Tilbury Fort, the
Armada having sailed a few days before. Captain ‘Thomas
Sadler of Temple Dinsley was in charge of the horse.
See the portrait of Captain Lytton in his armour opposite
this page.
Feb. 15th. By reason of the Earl of Essex’s rebellion and
the grave danger to the Queen’s safety, Sir Robert Cecil
commanded the High Constable of Hitchin to proceed with
the Trained Band of the Half-Hundred by night to Holborn
to ‘ the place of rendez-vous.’ On the day of Essex’s exe-
cution ‘ they guarded the courtyard at Whitehall by day and
night.’
What is now known as the Grammar School was this year
founded by John Mattock, his purpose being ‘ to teach and
instruct and train up the children of the inhabitants of
Hitchin in good literature and virtuous education for the
avoiding of idleness, the mother of all vice and wickedness.’
There is a tradition in the town that, before this foundation,
a small class was held in the sand-dells—the teachers of
those days tracing the alphabet in the sand.
The Justices report to the Judges of Assize: ‘ There have
dyed of the plague in the towne of Hitchin from the [Xth
of September to the IIIrd of November, all in the famylyes
of poore people, 22. Houses which have byn infected, 13.
Raised by the Overseers of the poore in this tyme of ye
visitation, £128, besides the charges of six watchmen and
one officer with them every night, and besides dailye reliefe
from the houses of the able and well-disposed. During
this tyme wee forbore to call the countrye to the monthlye
meeting, but wee deputed fower of the principall inhabi-
tants to be overseers of the Orders published by his
Majestye’s Commandment, and wee ourselves did weekly
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CHRONOLOGY 417
meete to see them put in execution.” W. Lytton, Arthur
Pulter, Francis Taverner.
Amongst the Herts Quarter Session Rolls is a petition
from certain ‘ very poor men’ of Hitchin who in this time
of plague were entreated to ‘ keepe’ their houses, which
they did upon promise of relief. ‘We are now being
forced to part with such things as we have to our utter
undoing if some relief is not forthcoming ’ (72. 5. 231).
1642— Hitchin fought on the Parliamentary side in the Civil War
1648.
1650.
1660.
(Vol. I, 181-207).
Purchase of Hitchin Manor by Samuel Chidley, Fifth-
Monarchist and pamphleteer (Vol. I, 212).
In memory of the Restoration of King Charles II, Sir
Thomas Byde gave the two sundials on the south side of
the church tower.
1660—- Bunyan’s preaching tours in the Hitchin district (Vol.
1672.
1662.
1665.
IT, 56).
George Atwell, in his book The Faithful Surveyor, published
this year, tells how wonderfully the barley in Hitchin parish
had been improved by the new custom of the farmers who,
when sending their wagons of malt to London, returned
laden with old rags and horn shavings, which they first
laid in heaps like dung and then ploughed into the soil.
In a space of thirty years the value of the local barley was
raised from £4 an acre to £9. Atwell also advises malt
dust, scouring of old ditches, and marl for spreading on
the land.
The plague raged this year in every part of Hitchin with
the exception of Tilehouse Street. It is stated in an early
history of the town that every man, woman and child in
Dead Street (now Queen Street) perished. In the year
1853 a large number of skeletons, buried only two feet
deep, were discovered behind No. 40, Queen Street, with
several coins upon them dated 1660. There were relics
of leather shoes on the feet of some of the skeletons, which
gives a grim reminder of the suddenness of the seizure of
those who died, and the indecent haste with which they
were buried. It is also recorded that the vicar of that day,
William Gibbs, accompanied by his Clerk, used to kneel
down and pray for the sick and dying outside their dwelling-
houses, the windows being thrown open that the sufferers
VOL. It DD
418
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
might hear. According to another contemporary account,
‘a young man at the Brotherhood House, becoming frantic
through the violence of the disease, was locked into his
room. He contrived, however, to break his way into the
chamber below, when, seeing his mother lying dead in her
bed, he became so terrified that he rushed out naked into
the street, where he was pursued and shot at, lest he should
spread the contagion. He escaped from his pursuers into
the Priory Park, where he lay down amongst some sheep,
which had such a salutary effect on him that the delirium
subsided and he returned home and recovered.’
Apart from those buried wholesale in Queen Street the
church registers show that 36 were buried in August, 55 in
September, 52 in October, 23 in November, and then a
great drop to 6 in December. Cold weather killed the
plague. ‘ He had been told as a young man,’ said John
Hill (1711-1746), a Baptist minister born at Hitchin, ‘ that
this visitation of the Lord was brought upon the town
through the instrumentality of Lydia 'Tuppenny, a most
notorious harlot of the time.’ As early as July the Justices
had met to consider the problem of checking those plague-
ridden people who came streaming out of London, and
John Papworth of Hitchin was one of those Grand Jury
men who on July roth presented that ‘ severall persons doe
dayly come downe from the cytie of London in great
numbers with their families and goods to inhabitt in
severall places in our countie to the great danger of infecting
the same.’
1666— John Skynner’s almshouses in Bancroft, erected at a cost
1672.
1670.
of £271 on a piece of ground called Benn’s Mead given by
Sir ‘Thomas Byde. ‘The Ralph Skynner almshouses were
added in 1698; and an endowment provided for the main-
tenance of eight poor, aged, impotent people of Hitchin.
Depositions were taken on commission at the sign of the
Bell at Hitchin to determine the privileges of the King’s
mills known as Portmill and Shackling Mill, and the legal
position of those private mills known as Chariton, Purwelil,
Oughton, Cadwell and Hidemill, which for some years
past had presumed to grind the corn of the manor tenants
and at a price ‘ one penny in the bushel less than the
constant rate of grinding hath alwayes been.’ The wit-
zfgi ‘saqyong ‘oO ‘f Aq Surmesp & worl
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“ af
1676.
1677.
1679.
1680
circa.
1690.
1692.
1716.
1720.
1'730.
1738.
1739:
1741.
1750.
1757-
1759-
CHRONOLOGY 419
nesses called were John Bruton, Edward Pryor, Edmund
Papworth, Bennet Collisson, Thomas Ansell and George
Mann (Depositions taken under Commission, 22 Charles IT,
Easter, No. 24, Co. Hertford).
Survey made of Hitchin Manor. It reported that there
were 600 houses in the parish and 217 owners.
Bunyan’s friend, John Wilson, became first pastor of the
Hitchin Baptists (Vol. II, 70).
By command of the Duke of Monmouth, then Commander-
in-Chief of the King’s Forces, Hitchin was appointed an
Army recruiting and quartering centre.
The first fire engine purchased (Vol. IT, 386).
The first Independent chapel built (Vol. II, 102).
The first ‘Tilehouse Street chapel built (Vol. IT, 74).
Some Jacobites, who had been concerned in the rising of
the year before and had since been in hiding, were this
year taken at Preston and conveyed to London for trial.
James Bogdani, the Hungarian painter, became lessee of
Hitchin Manor (Vol. I, 61).
158 people died of smallpox. The market was for the
time being held in Butts Close, but the dealers were not
allowed to come near each other. They left their goods or
money at an appointed place.
The last marriage performed at Minsden Chapel (Vol. II, 35).
George Whitefield preached at Hitchin (Vol. II, 113).
A survey of the parish made by John Davis.
Eugene Aram an usher at the Church School (Vol. IT, 316).
The Hitchin, Shefford and Bedford Turnpike Trust
created (Vol. I, 291).
A Royal warrant issued for the raising of a regiment of light
dragoons by Lieutenant-Colonel Hale of King’s Walden,
who after much distinguished service had brought to
England the dispatches telling of the death of Wolfe in
the fight on the Plains of Abraham, he himself having taken
a brilliant share in the action at the head of the 47th. These
were afterwards styled the 17th Lancers, and have become
famous as ‘ the Death or Glory Boys,’ and as one of the
five regiments which took part in the Charge of the Light
Brigade. The recruits were ‘ to be light and straight, and
by no means gummy,’ and were to receive a bounty of three
420 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
guineas on enlistment. ‘The regiment was recruited up to
its establishment by Colonel Hale within the space of
seventeen days, mainly from the Hitchin district and
entirely from the county. Captain Hinde of Hunsdon
House, Preston, was second-in-command; he subsequently
wrote an account of the formation and war service of the
regiment.
1761. Daniel Warner rebuilt the almshouses in the churchyard
at his own cost ‘ for the warmer and better comfort of the
poorest widows or ancient couples of this town.’
1770. ‘The New Assembly Rooms at the Sun were built and used
for the meetings of the Justices in Petty Sessions.
1775— William Gordon, D.D., an Independent minister born at
1780. Hitchin, emigrated to America; and, after serving as pastor
of the third church at Roxbury, Massachusetts, became
private secretary to General Washington. In 1788 he
published The History of the Rise and Independence of the
United States (Vol. II, 123).
1780. Local petition sent to Parliament pointing out the disas-
trous effects of the American War, and requesting ‘ that
before any new burthens be laid upon the country effectual
measures may be taken by that House to inquire into and
correct the gross abuses in the expenditure of public money ;
to reduce all exorbitant emoluments; to rescind and abolish
all sinecure places and unmerited pensions; and to appro-
priate the produce to the necessities of the State.’
The same year the Hitchin contingent of the Herts
Militia was summoned to London to deal with the Gordon
rioters.
1783. Thirteen incendiary fires within twenty weeks (Vol. IT, 388).
1789. The Hitchin and Hertfordshire Bank established. It was
afterwards known as Chapman, Pierson, Crabbe & Co.
1794. The Club Articles of the following societies were licensed
at Quarter Sessions: (1) The Amicable and Brotherly
Society at the Cock at Hitchin. (2) A like society at the
Crown. (3) A Friendly Society at the Bull at Gosmore.
(4) An Amicable and Brotherly Society at the Three Horse
Shoes, Hitchin. (5) A like society at the Red Cow.
1795. (Feb. 9th.) A very sudden and destructive flood on a thaw
after deep snow. John Geard says: ‘ It ran down Bridge
Street in a torrent sufficient to drive a mill.’ The landlord
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1795:
1799-
1800.
1800.
1800.
1801.
1803.
1804.
1806.
1806.
CHRONOLOGY 421
of the Sun Inn barricaded his entry witha dung-heap. The
lower end of the churchyard was three feet deep in water.
All the inhabitants of the Bridge Street quarter had their
lower rooms inundated, and retreated like rats upstairs
with their provisions.
The Hitchin Cavalry went to Ware on account of a distur-
bance there, ‘the servants of certain bargemasters and
maltsters having unlawfully conspired to raise their wages
and assembled in a riotous manner.’
The Loyal Hitchin Association (afterwards called the Loyal
Volunteers) received their Colours.
Bread famine after a series of bad harvests. The quartern
loaf up to eighteen-pence. Proclamation restricting con-
sumption to one loaf per head per week.
June 14th. The King reviewed the Herts Volunteers,
Yeomanry and Militia at Hatfield Park, the Hitchin contin-
gent under Captain Wilshere numbering seventy men.
The smallpox raged. Inthe MS. diary of Sarah Crafton
it is stated that ‘ John Dimsdale of Hitchin inoculated about
600 persons with the cow-pock, the latter end of this year.’
Return of Hitchin parish at the first Census as containing
6,460 acres, 674 houses and 3,161 inhabitants, of whom
1,508 were males and 1,653 females.
On the resumption of the war the Hitchin Volunteers again
mustered under Captain John Crabb, Lieutenants James
Nash, Joseph Eade and Ensign John Baron; and were
attached to the Herts Local Militia, commanded by Colonel
William Wilshere and Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. 'Thomas
Brand. Over a thousand poundswere collected in the town
for their expenses.
Four permanent butchers’ stalls in the Market Square,
opposite the Swan, were surrendered to the town by the
owners, Charles Baron and Thomas Brown, and a barley
market was established on their site.
Under the direction of the Hitchin and Welwyn Turnpike
Trust a cut was made in Hitchin Hill, lowering the road
surface by about six feet. ‘The wall of ox-horns at the
foot of the hill was removed at the same time (966. 93).
The Malt Mill, which stood about 50 yards north-west of
the Priory (see Drapentier’s Map, facing p. 17, Vol I), was
pulled down this year, and Malt Mill Lane, which ran from
422
1810.
1811.
1811.
1811.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Charlton to Hitchin beside the river, through Sorrel Mead,
was turned into its present course; a strip off the Priory
grounds being added to the Willow Lane to widen it
sufficiently for a cart or carriage way to be made into
Tilehouse Street at Wratten. ‘The extension of this road,
past the Willows into the Luton Road, was the work of
William Exton. In consideration of being allowed to make
this diversion, the Delmé-Radcliffes bound themselves to
keep the new road in repair, but this obligation was released
when the family gave the Bath Spring to the town with
the right to lay pipes through the park. ‘The continuation
of the old garden wall, consequent on the alteration of the
road, was made partly, if not altogether, with the bricks of
the old garden wall at Highdown. This diversion of Malt
Mill Lane was originally conceived by John Radcliffe as
part of his scheme for the improvement of the Priory estate.
It was he also who had stocked the river with trout brought
from Derbyshire, for which the carters and people going
along the road, and poaching anglers generally, had reason
to be grateful (966. 47).
The British School founded by William Wilshere and the
Hon. Thomas Brand, afterwards Lord Dacre. After 1826
the school was managed by a body of twenty trustees, ten
of whom were to be Churchmen and ten Protestant Dissen-
ters. New buildings for girls and infants were erected
in 1857.
At the Census this year Hitchin was found to contain 3,809
persons—an increase of 648 since the Census of 1801. The
population was distributed as follows: ‘Town, 3,044;
Walsworth, 159; Bearton, 14; Charlton, 85; Preston, 260;
Langley, 158; Hitchin Hill, 89. One hundred houses had
been added in the ten years.
The Hitchin Amicable Society founded by William Lucas,
John Whitney, William Stanton and others, ‘for enabling
the subscribers the better to provide for the children
nominated by them, or for their own benefit on the lives
of such children.’
The Hitchin and Auxiliary Bible Society founded. Presi-
dent: The Hon. Thomas Brand, M.P. Vice-Presidents:
William Hale, Emilius Henry Delmé-Radcliffe, William
Wilshere and William Hale, junior. ‘Treasurer: Joseph
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1813.
1813.
1814.
1815.
1815.
1816.
1818.
1820.
CHRONOLOGY 423
Margetts Pierson. Secretaries: The Rev. Theophilus
Humphries, the Rev. William Parry and the Rev. Jeremiah
Owen. Committee: Samuel Allen, Thomas Brown,
Joseph Eade, John Field, Thomas Hailey, George Hicks,
Samuel Kirkby, William Lucas, Robert Newton, John
Prior, Joshua Ransom, Joseph Rayner, Henricus Octavius
Roe, Samuel Smith, Thomas Wilshere, John Whitney.
The Hitchin Ladies’ Bible Association was founded in 1819.
The Crown sold its water mills by auction—Charlton Mill
to William Bodger, and Grove Mill, formerly called
Shotting Mill, to John Ransom.
The New Book Society established, and the Hitchin
Permanent Book Society shortly after. Most of their
books were merged in the library of the Hitchin Mechanics’
Institution when this was erected in 1860.
Henry Bessemer, the inventor of a new process of manufac-
turing steel, was born in Charlton hamlet, Hitchin. He
was knighted in 1879. ‘The Bessemer process was intro-
duced into the U.S.A. and developed by Alexander L.
Holley, 1867—1870.
A hot dinner, referred to in the accounts as ‘ The Hitchin
Patriotic Dinner,’ given to 1,300 poor people in Bancroft
to celebrate the overthrow of Buonaparte and the Treaty
of Paris.
The Port Mill was pulled down, and a modern mill,
containing a large store for grain and flour, was built upon
its site.
The Hitchin Provident Institution or Savings Bank
founded by William Wilshere, Rev. Joseph Parsons, James
Eade and others.
A plan and valuation of the parish made by Messrs. Neale
and Kimpton.
The Hitchin Friendly Society founded by John Hawkins.
It was dissolved in 1876.
The windmill standing in the open fields between the
Manley Highway and the Offley Road was removed bodily
to a new site on the Gaping Hills, a distance of 450 yards.
The ground from point to point was cleared and levelled
of all fences, banks and ditches; and then the mill, being
raised by screwjacks and a frame on four wheels being
built under it, was pulled in full working order (stones,
424
1821.
1823.
1824.
1824.
1825.
1825-
1828.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
machinery, sails and all) by thirty-six horses harnessed
in six rows of six abreast. The schools were allowed a
holiday to see this wonderful feat.
At the Census this year the people numbered 4,486,
showing an increase of 677 since the returns of 1811.
Males, 2,088; Females, 2,398. ‘The number of inhabited
houses 886, occupied by 1,000 families. Families em-
ployed in agriculture, 345; in trade, 467; in other ways,
188. ‘ We attribute the increase,’ say the Justices, ‘in
some degree to earlier marriages of the poor. Some have
returned from the Army, and there has been a greater
number of illegitimate children, but the principal cause
has been the diminution of deaths as compared with births.’
The Hitchin Dispensary established by Dr. Frederick
Hawkins in Cock Street (now High Street, No. 14).
(September 2nd.) ‘ This day,’ says William Lucas in his
diary, ‘died William Wilshere, the most eminent public
character of this town and neighbourhood; a man of great
prudence and sagacity, who, as attorney and steward of
many copyhold manors, acquired much wealth and influ-
ence. A very kind friend to the poor.’
The rateable value of Hitchin assessed at £13,057 6s.
‘We the inhabitants of the town of Hitchin at a meeting
convened in consequence of the embarrassed state of the
country at the present moment have come to the following
Resolution: “‘ That we have the fullest confidence in the
stability and means of the Banking Houses in this Town
and will support their credit to the utmost of our power,
and hope by so doing to remove the groundless alarms of
the timid, and to preserve this neighbourhood from the
unreasonable panic which has been the cause of so much
distress in other parts of the country.”’’ Signed by Henry
Wiles, Vicar, and ninety leading inhabitants.
Feb. 14th. Willtam Lucas notes in his diary : ‘ This morning
it was discovered that the corpse of a young woman who
had been buried last 6th day the 11th in the Churchyard
had been stolen from the grave, occasioning great affliction
to her parents and much sensation in the town. I went to
see the empty coffin; it remained at the bottom of the grave.’
The registers of St. Mary’s make it clear that the young
woman was Elizabeth Whitehead of Bancroft, aged twenty-
ANCIENT COTTAGES FORMERLY IN PARK STREET
From a painting by Joseph Jackson Lister, 1826
1827.
1828.
1829.
1829.
1831.
1831.
1832.
1832.
CHRONOLOGY 425
one. After this case of body-snatching, one of a long
series, it was decided to rail in the Churchyard. Asum of
£500 was raised by subscription and the present iron fence
erected. The work was carried out by H. S. Merritt,
assisted by George Beaver, his apprentice, who tramped
London for a week making sketches of similar enclosures.
The Hitchin Friendly Institution founded by John Hawkins
and others for the mutual relief and maintenance of the
members in sickness, infancy and advanced age.
The last hop-kiln dismantled. It stood near the east end
of the churchyard. Hops were cultivated on the Bedford
Road before that time.
Petition of the ‘ Ladies of the Town of Hitchin’ to King
George IV, whom they fulsomely addressed as ‘ Your
most gracious Majesty, the First Gentleman as well as the
Greatest Monarch in Europe, whom no Lady ever fruit-
lessly appealed to, and from whose August Presence no
Mother’s or Widow’s Heart ever returned without Leaping
for joy, etc. ‘The purpose of the petition was to beseech
him not to suffer the Papists to enter either House of
Parliament, or hold any public offices under the Crown.
Some of the houses standing in the middle of the Market
Place were pulled down; the rest in 1851 and 1856.
The Census return shows a total population of 5,211,
females exceeding males by nearly 300. Inhabited houses,
997- ‘Total number of families, 1,080, of which 347 were
engaged in agriculture and 452 1n trade.
The ancient cottages in Park Street shown opposite this
page were pulled down for road-widening.
What William Lucas calls ‘the pleasant piece of green-
sward called Russells Slipe ’ was developed.
(July 12th and 13th.) Public dinner at the Sun and public
subscription dinner given to the poor and labouring classes
of Hitchin to commemorate the passing of the Reform Bill.
Trestle tables were laid along Bancroft to seat 2,400 people;
and 1,500 children were separately fed ‘ with a sixpenny
plum cake.’ The roast beef and plum pudding were only
just consumed when, as William Lucas records, ‘a grand
storm of thunder and lightning and a deluginous rain’
broke up the company and silenced the hired music from
the City of London.
426
1833.
1834.
1834.
1834.
1835.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
A serious outbreak of cholera. ‘Thomas Wilshere, writing
on November sth, says: ‘ We had five deaths yesterday.
At present (1 o’clock) we have but one. The cases
without a single exception have been confined to the
labouring classes. You will imagine we are far from being
comfortable. Really hearing the knells all day yesterday
was most awful. I propose to go to Ely if the pestilence
should increase ’ (952).
The Wesleyan Chapel in Pound Lane, now Brand Street,
was built by Thomas Ward. It was erected at a cost of
£1,321 on a site purchased in 1829 for £700 by Thomas
Hine, William Conquest and others. The first Superin-
tendent was the Rev. William Davies. Originally attached
to the Biggleswade Circuit, Hitchin became a circuit on
its own account with Stevenage, Weston, Arlesey, Ickleford,
Walkern and Pirton as its other members. In 1870 the
chapel, which seats 500, was refronted and restored at a
cost of £999. An organ was added in 1880 at a cost of
£300. In 1898 an additional schoolroom and classrooms
were erected at a cost of £1,865. ‘The church membership
in 1928 numbered exactly 100.
Introduction of gas. In the first year the average con-
sumption was 7,000 cubic feet per day, price 10s. per
1,000; in 1897 it was 150,000 cubic feet, price 3s. 3d. per
I,000; in I929 It was 500,000 cubic feet per day, price
38s. gd. per 1,000. In writing to Doctor Joseph Rix of
St. Neots in 1833, James Daniell Morell, formerly of
Hitchin, inserts this piece of news: ‘I find they are going
to make great improvements in the town of Hitchin, no
less than laying the whole town with gas! This is a mark
of intellect which I should not have expected there; but
wonders never cease.’
In the hope of reviving the ancient wool trade in the town,
a wool fair was held in Bancroft on June 26th. Over
24,000 fleeces were brought into market, and at the farmer’s
Ordinary at the Sun 250 sat down.
The Mechanics’ Institute was founded, William Dawson
being appointed Librarian and Instructor of the classes in
grammar, arithmetic, geography, geometry and astronomy.
The members for a time occupied a house at the top of Brand
Street. The library was erected at a cost of £500 in 1861.
CHRONOLOGY 427
1838. The Cecil Lodge, No. 657 (since 1863, No. 449), was
consecrated on May 19th at the Sun. It took its name
from the Marquess of Salisbury, who was at that time
Provincial Grand Master for Hertfordshire. William
Lloyd Thomas was installed as the first Worshipful Master ;
Thomas Harwood Darton was invested as first Senior
Warden, John Marshall as Junior Warden, and Henry
Wiles, Vicar of Hitchin, as Chaplain. Amongst those
initiated on the day of consecration were Frederick Peter
Delmé-Radcliffe (first Director of Ceremonies), William
Curling, Charles Times (first Secretary, 1838-1840, and
Treasurer, 1847-1872), Samuel Hill and J. B. Geard.
John Sugars was Secretary from 1841-1875; W. J. Fitch
from 1875-1902; and J. H. Gilbertson from 1902 to the
present date.
1838. Sixty-three inhabitants of Hitchin presented a petition in
favour of a Low and Uniform Rate of Postage, and urged
that a fair trial should be given to Mr. Rowland Hill’s
proposals. Hitchin at that time was a Post ‘Town in the
Eastern District. It appears from the second Report of
the Select Committee of the same year that during the week
commencing January 29, 1838, the number of letters and
parcels posted through the Hitchin office was 538, made up
as follows: 101 ‘ General’ ones, exceptionally prepaid by
their senders, with 356 others to be settled for by the
recipients upon delivery; 11 Penny Post or local letters,
also to be paid for on delivery; and 70 franked or free
communications. ‘The newspapers totalled 39, and the
receipts for the week on all business done amounted to
£13 19s. 6d. The Postmaster, J. Bell, enjoyed a salary
of £45, which, with ‘fees on late letters, gratuities for
private bags or pouches, Christmas-boxes, profits on
money orders,’ etc., sometimes rose to £53 4s. gd. The
annual expense of running the Hitchin P.O. is entered at
£55 8s.
To show the growth of P.O. business in later years we
may add that the average number of letters delivered per
week by the Hitchin P.O. was 5,000 in 1859, 21,000 in
1897, and 52,000 in 1929 (iii).
11. I am indebted for some of these particulars to my friend Arthur Fellows
of Letchworth, a grandson of Sir Rowland Hill. He has made an exhaustive
428
1840.
1841.
1843.
1844.
1845.
1846.
1847.
1847.
1848.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
By the public spirit and benevolence of Dr. Frederick
Hawkins the Infirmary was erected this year at a cost of
£4,931. The Old Town Hall, of which Bellamy was the
architect, and the Friends’ Meeting House were completed
the same year.
Population returned as 6,125—an increase of 914, or nearly
one-sixth, in ten years.
The Loyal Albert Lodge of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity,
established.
The second Baptist chapel built at a cost of £2,432
(Vol. II, 95).
Messrs. Sharples & Co., who had opened business in
Bancroft in 1820, built the premises now occupied by
Barclays Bank, Ltd., in the High Street. Of recent
partners one may mention James Hack Tuke, who joined
the Bank in 1851, retired in 1895, and died in 1896; Francis
Lucas, who joined in 1856 and died in 1896; Frederic
Seebohm, who joined in 1859 and died in 1912; Samuel
Tuke, who joined in 1880 and retired in 1886; William
Tindall Lucas, who joined in 1876; and Hugh Exton
Seebohm, in 1891. In 1896 the Bank was absorbed in
Barclays Bank Limited.
An Act passed to provide a railway from Hitchin to Royston.
The line was opened for traffic in October 1850.
‘The London & York Railway,’ writes Samuel Lucas, ‘ is
getting on. Between Hitchin and Walsworth so many men
are at work that the earth seems alive. Some pick down the
chalk banks, others shovel the earth into carriages, and an
old horse draws the carriages along the rail, and then tips
them over. They have had two very bad injuries to the
poor men. One had a very bad fracture of the leg from
the falling of the chalk, and the other had his hand crushed
between two waggons. Both of them were carried to the
Infirmary.’
First County Court held at Hitchin (Charles Times,
Registrar).
A notice published by the tradesmen of Hitchin that in
future no shops would be open on Sunday.
study of the history of the G.P O , and particularly of its local service. Hus
MSS. can be consulted by serious students, and so can the copies 1n my
possession.
ee gt
ic =xtiyct roy Cert
From a coloured engraving by Edward S Austin, 1840
1849.
1849.
1850.
1850.
1851.
CHRONOLOGY 429
About this year Joshua Ransom established a silk mill,
which employed three hundred persons. The factory was
at Grove Mill, but failed a few years later (966. 148).
Report to the Central Board of Health as to the sewerage,
drainage and supply of water, and the sanitary conditions
of the inhabitants of Hitchin, by William Ranger, C.E.,
Superintendent Inspector. From this it appears that there
had been 1,700 cases of sickness in the preceding twelve
months, of which 850 had been cases of typhus fever. ‘Ten
thousand visits had been paid in the town by the Medical
Officer, and 12,000 parcels of medicine, in bulk about
250 gallons, distributed. ‘The cost of these cases had been
£587. 162 people had died, being about forty above the
average death-rate. The report strongly condemned the
open sewers in the streets, the contamination of the 92 wells
in the town, the lack of waterclosets, of which there were
only 59, and the fearful overcrowding, especially in Back
Street. There were no less than 183 cottages containing one
bedroom each. In one cottage a man and wife and seven
children slept in a room 12 feet square. Window opening,
1 foot g inches by 1 foot 2 inches. ‘The report also draws
attention to the 38 fully licensed houses and the 21 beer
houses in the town, and to the pauper population of 967,
showing an increase of 582 in the space of six years (42).
The G.N.R. line from Peterborough to London through
Hitchin was opened on August 5th. One of the couplings
broke on the first Parliamentary train, and eight coaches
with their dismayed passengers were left behind. Shortly
after the opening, Queen Victoria passed through, and
the station was decorated with straw-plait to signify the
local industry, just as at Biggleswade the platforms were
decorated with carrots.
A local Board of Health established under the Public Health
Act of 1848. Hitchin was the second town in England to
adopt its provisions. ‘This was dissolved in 1856, and
from that date until 1873 the town was managed by the
Vestry. In 1873 a Local Board was established under the
Public Health Act, 1858. After 1894 the Board became an
Urban District Council.
At the request of the Local Board of Health the Ordnance
Survey Department made a survey of Hitchin parish.
430
1852.
1852.
1853.
1853.
1854.
1855.
1857.
1857.
1857.
1859.
1865.
1868.
1868.
1868.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
The Port Mill was purchased by the Local Board from
Mr. Bodger for £1,600 and demolished.
Walsworth school built by Mrs. Exton. In 1864 Mrs.
Hailey endowed it with £1,000. In 1866 the management
was transferred by Mrs. Barclay and Mrs. Seebohm to a
body of trustees.
The Corn Exchange was built at a cost of just over
£2,000.
Reservoir and engine-house built on Windmill Hill. The
sewer was laid in the streets; and on Christmas Day the
water from Charlton Bath spring was connected with the
town. ‘Total cost of these improvements, £14,000.
St. Mary’s Schools erected at a cost of £4,020 on ground
given by Trinity College, Cambridge. In the same year
St. Andrew’s School was built through the enterprise of
the Rev. George Gainsford on land given by Charles Willes
Wilshere.
The second Queen Street Independent, or as now styled
‘ Congregational,’ chapel built (Vol. IT, 132).
The Cemetery was opened. With the extension, conse-
crated in 1879, it contains seven acres, and cost just over
£3,000. The grounds were laid out by George Beaver.
The first burial in the cemetery to be recorded on a tomb-
stone was that of William Morgan, for forty-nine years
sexton of St. Mary’s. The Cemetery Road was constructed
through the sand dells in 1871 at a cost of £986.
The Hitchin Penny Bank founded by Samuel Lucas,
Joseph Sharples, William Hawkins and Septimus Wright.
Edward Pease, in his diary under April 25th, notes: ‘ Robert
Stephenson ’” (i.e. George Stephenson’s son) ‘ handed me
a Hitchin Railway Bond to the amount of £5,000 for
Joseph and myself. ‘The bonds are at par, being 4 per cent.’
The Mount Zion Chapel erected by the Particular Baptists.
The Church of the Holy Saviour was built at the cost of
the Rev. George Gainsford and consecrated on Ascension
Day.
The St. Saviour’s Schools were opened.
The Workmen’s Hall was erected, and subsequently made
the headquarters of the Blue Cross Brigade.
The chapel known as Bull’s Barn, occupied by the Particu-
lar Baptists, was sold by auction, purchased by Charles
BANCROFT IN 1865
From a photograph by T. B. Latchmore
1869.
1869.
1870.
1874.
1874.
1876.
1877.
1877.
1877.
1877—
1918.
CHRONOLOGY 431
Willes Wilshere and converted into St. John the Baptist
Mission Church.
The first telegraph wires were fitted on to the Post Office
at the shop of John Beaver in the Market Place.
At the house known as Benslow a ladies’ college was
established, and subsequently transferred to Cambridge
under the style of Girton College (993).
Bethel Chapel erected.
By the generosity of Frederic Seebohm the town was
enabled to make a convenient way from the Walsworth
road to the middle of Bancroft by the straight cut known
as the Hermitage Road. The bridge over the river was
constructed by George Beaver.
The Plait Hall erected at the corner of St. Andrew’s Street
by C. A. Bartlett. In 1898 the building was purchased for
£350, and transformed into the St. Andrew’s Mission
Church. In 1928, at the time of the slum demolition, it
was pulled down.
The Walsworth Road Chapel was built by the Baptists,
who had formed a separate Church there in 1869. Before
the Chapel was built the congregation worshipped in an
iron building, erected at his own cost by Richard Johnson,
Chief Engineer of the G.N.R.
‘The common fields in Bury Mead were enclosed, and those
in Cock Mead nine years after.
The Hitchin Blue Cross Brigade founded by Arthur
Latchmore. It was dissolved in 1929.
Died John Thompson, who for fifty years was Secretary
of the British School. He was succeeded by his son,
Lawson Thompson, who held office for forty years.
The Hitchin Rifle Volunteers re-formed as the 14th Herts
Company under Captain Bailey Denton and Lieutenants
C. W. Wilshere and Arthur Preedy; and later amalgamated
with the rst (Herts) Volunteer Battalion of the Bedfordshire
Regiment. The Battalion furnished three companies for
service in the South African War, and bore on its Regimental
Colours ‘South Africa, 1g00-1902’ by command of
King Edward VII. It had the honour in rgor of being
selected as the only battalion to represent the Volunteer
Army in the First Army Corps. In 1907 the Territorial
Army was formed, and the 1st and 2nd Herts Volunteers
432
1879.
1883.
1884.
1885.
1885.
1887.
1887.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
were amalgamated as the 1st Hertfordshire Territorial
Regiment under the command of Colonel C. E. Longmore,
who was subsequently awarded the K.C.B. In this
amalgamation Major J. H. Gilbertson commanded the
Hitchin Company.
The Herts was one of the first Territorial Regiments to
go into the firing-line during the Great War; and under
the command of Viscount Hampden fought at the first
Battle of Ypres as part of the Earl of Cavan’s 4th Brigade
of the Guards. The‘ Herts Guards ’ achieved the following
battle honours: Ypres, 1914, 1917; Nonne Bosschen;
Festubert, 1915; Loos; Somme, 1916, 1918; ‘Thiepval;
Ancre Heights; Ancre, 1916; Pilckem; Menin Road;
Polygon Wood; Broodseindes; Poelcappelle; Paschendaele;
St. Quentin; Rosiéres; Lys; Kemmel; Albert, 1916;
Bapaume, 1918; Hindenburg Line; Cambrai, 1918; Solle;
Sambre; France and Flanders, 1914-1918. ‘The Honours
in italics are borne on the King’s Colour. In this Great
War the Regiment lost 1,050, of whom 74 were Hitchin
men.
The Church Adult Class was established in the Old Free
School by William Onslow Times.
The Market Tolls, formerly owned by the Crown, were
purchased for the Town at the price of £4,000.
The Swan Inn, from which Kershaw’s coach used to start,
was this year sold to John Gatward, ironmonger, and the
greater part of it demolished.
A set of chimes, playing fourteen tunes, was installed in
the church belfry through a legacy given by Thomas
Gorham Pierson.
A Police Court and Police Station were erected in Bancroft;
and the Bridewell adjoining Skinner’s almshouses was
then closed.
June 21. Jubilee Day. Massed service for children in
the church. The Volunteers fired a feu-de-~joie from the
tower. Four hundred folk over sixty years of age were
entertained in the Corn Exchange. A public dinner
given to two thousand working people and their wives in
Bancroft, the tables being ranged on each side of the street
from Port Mill Lane as far as the Manor House.
The first steam fire-engine purchased (Vol. IT, 403).
S6g1 ‘azowyoiey g ‘1, 4q ydeisojoyd & woly
IASOUONVE NI LaxuvVW FHL
1888.
1890.
1891.
1891.
1895.
1goo.
1g00.
1gol.
Igol.
1902.
1903.
1903.
1903.
1904.
1904.
1904.
CHRONOLOGY 433
Barracks for the Salvation Army erected in Florence
Street.
The Highbury, Benslow and Avenue district developed on
land formerly known as the Nettledell Estate.
Population returned for Census at 8,860.
The new Hitchin Grammar School opened. The property
purchased for the school was found to have belonged
originally to the same John Mattock who founded the first
grammar school in Tilehouse Street in 1632.
A mission church dedicated to St. Faith was erected at
Walsworth on ground given by Charles Willes Wilshere.
July 11. The Church of St. Martin, Preston, built at a
cost of £2,000, was consecrated by the Bishop of St. Albans.
The architect was ‘Thomas Carter.
The Primitive Methodist Church built at a cost, including
site, of £800. The first resident minister was the Rev.
William Suttle.
The Hitchin Society of Arts and Letters founded by
Alexander Pulling. Hon. Sec., Wentworth Huyshe.
A new Town Hall built at a cost of £7,300. Architects,
Geoffry Lucas, F.R.I.B.A., and E. W. Mbountford,
F.R.I.B.A.
The Roman Catholic Church of Mary Immaculate and St.
Andrew was this year blessed by His Eminence Cardinal
Vaughan, Archbishop of Westminster.
June 8th—-14th. Abnormal rains. Six and a half inches in
seven days. One period of sixty hours’ continuous storm.
Bridge Street and the lower parts of Hitchin nearly three
feet under water.
The Pig and Cattle Market in Bancroft closed, and the New
Market in Nun’s Close laid out at a cost of about £2,000;
the land being leased for ninety-nine years from Trinity
College at £40 a year.
The Hitchin Debating Society formed. William Onslow
Times, President; ‘Thomas Adams, of Letchworth, Hon.
Secretary. Dissolved in 1927.
Caldicott School founded by J. Heald Jenkins and J. H. S.
MacArthur.
St. Michael’s College founded.
The Hitchin Brotherhood founded by the Rev. Clement
F. Bryer.
VOL. II. EE
434 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
1905. Died William Maylin, who had been born at Walsworth
on August 3, 1803. He had 14 children, and left 270
descendants in a direct line surviving.
1907. The Sacred Heart Convent school founded on May 11th.
1907. New scheme for the administration of Hitchin Charities
approved by the Charity Commission.
1907. The North Herts Permanent Mutual Benefit Building
Society founded. First Secretary, W. F. Langford.
1908. The German Hospital built at a cost of £13,000, the
foundation-stone being laid by Princess Louise Augusta of
Schleswig-Holstein.
1908. July 25th. ‘The Girls’ Grammar School, built at a cost of
£13,000, was opened by the Rev. Dr. Butler, Master of
Trinity College, Cambridge. First head mistress, Janet E.
Gosnell.
1908. Water Tower and Reservoir built on Windmill Hill at a
cost of £12,000.
1911. The first, temporary church of St. Mark licensed for
worship on December 25th.
1912. The Herts and Beds Bacon Factory established with a
capital of £20,000.
1913. The Hitchin Playhouse built.
1914— On the war memorial, and on pp. 447-449 of this History,
1919. are the names of two hundred and sixty men of Hitchin
who made the supreme sacrifice. At sea the first casualty
was the Rev. E. G. U. Robson, who went down with
H.M.S. Aboukir, of which warship he was a chaplain. On
land the first to fall was Sergeant Albert Clayton. Alto-
gether eleven officers and twenty-four non-commissioned
officers and men were decorated for bravery on the field,
or for distinguished service on the various battle fronts.
One of these, Second Lieutenant Frank Edward Young, was
awarded the Victoria Cross. Of the 1,200 or so who
enlisted from this parish, then numbering 12,000 souls,
the majority served with (a) the Hertfordshires, who were
specially mentioned in dispatches for their gallantry and
sacrifice at the first and third battles of Ypres, at La Bassée
and at the taking of St. Julien (see also under 1877);
(6) the Bedfordshires, who were in the thick of the fighting
on the Western Front from first to last, though their name
is chiefly honoured for their brilliant stand at Ypres and
CHRONOLOGY 435
their valour at Neuve Chapelle; (c) the Hertfordshire
Yeomanry, who took part in the Gallipoli, Egyptian and
Mesopotamian campaigns, and had the distinction of
being ‘ first in Bagdad.’
On the home front one should specially mention the
work of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, the Hitchin
branch of which had been efficiently organized by Mrs.
Tindall Lucas before the war. A Red Cross hospital for
convalescents was opened at The Maples in Bedford Road
on April 15, 1915, Mrs. Clemens Usher being Commandant
and Miss C. ‘Tindall Lucas the first Sister-in-charge. Miss
Phillips acted as quartermaster and Miss Bristow as
assistant quartermaster. For their services at the same
hospital Miss Unwin and Miss 'Tiddeman were officially
mentioned in the last year of the war. In all some
eight hundred patients, each staying on an average one
month, received treatment from the Hitchin V.A.D. In
addition, a Military Hospital was established at Benslow
for the Royal Engineers, who, under Colonel J. A. Rose,
Were in training from January 1915 until the close of
the war.
One should not leave unrecorded the work of the Red
Cross Needlework Association, with its headquarters at
the Grange; the Y.M.C.A. centres at the Old Town Hall
and at the camp in Bedford Road; the Soldiers’ Club at
the Wesleyan Church; the force of Special Constables
under the command of Section Leaders Arthur Hill and
P. A. Sharman; the Hitchin Volunteer Training Corps for
Home Defence under the command of Major J. H. Gilbert-
son; and the several food, fuel and pension committees and
tribunals appointed to carry out the complex regulations of
the civil and military authorities.
When this vast sacrifice of lives and this great record of
service is fully reviewed Hitchin has cause for deep pride
in the part it played in the Great War.
1915. The Hitchin Girls’ Club founded at 23, Queen Street by
E. Aillie Latchmore. In 1926 the Club moved to larger
premises in Bethel Lane, and the management was trans-
ferred to a Committee under the chairmanship of Mrs.
Theodore Ransom.
1918. A branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association
436 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
formed. First President, Mrs. ‘Tindall Lucas. Hon.
Secretary, Mrs. Reginald Hine.
1919. First Hitchin Company of the Girls’ Life Brigade founded
by Miss Marjorie Russell.
1921. The population of the town returned for the Census as
12,829.
1921. Windmill Hill given by the Seebohm family to the town.
1923. Complimentary banquet given by G. W. Russell, Chairman
of the H.U.D.C., to William Onslow Times to celebrate his
fifty years’ service as Clerk to the Hitchin Local Board and
the Hitchin Urban District Council.
1926. St. Mary’s Vicarage sold and a new vicarage built for
£2,500 in Gray’s Lane.
1926. A recreation ground given by Mrs. Smithson at the top of
Tilehouse Street. One of the first recreation grounds to
be restricted in its use to women and girls.
1927. The King’s Cup won by the 344th (Hitchin) Battery of
the Herts Yeomanry Brigade, Royal Artillery.
sees The Queen Street slums demolished.
1927— Frederic Seebohm’s house and garden purchased by
1929. John Ray, and shops built along the northern side of
Hermitage Road.
1928. The Hitchin Arcade built.
1928. The Hitchin Library and the County Library amalgamated.
The new library was opened by Alderman William Graveson
of Hertford. George Spurr, Chairman of the Hitchin
Urban District Council, took out as the first book Vol. I
of The History of Hitchin.
1928. The Hitchin Rotary Club formed. First President,
A.J. G. Lindsell. Charter granted June 10, 1929.
1928. The revaluation of the town under the Rating and Valuation
Act, 1925, showed an increase of 32°5 per cent. on the
previous valuation in 1900 and a total rateable value of
£90,252.
1929. The old Town Hall converted into Council Offices at a
cost of £2,000.
1929. The Bancroft Recreation Ground laid out at a cost of £8,000.
1929. A new wing added to the Hitchin Hospital at a cost,
including equipment, of £7,500; and opened by the Duchess
of York. Between 1913 and 1929 over £30,000 was spent
on improvements at the Hospital.
L261 ‘atowyoieyT ML, 44 Yydessoj0yd & wo1g
YAMOL YLVYM AHL JO JOOU AHL WOuUd NIHOLIH dO MGIA
AE NON ot Wynn ath cae } ;
nS
CONCLUSION
» ND what’s the use of it all, anyway?’
That was the question put to me by a
fellow-townsman as I sauntered beside
him through the streets of Hitchin with
a fragment of this History underneath my
arm. An unpleasant question—one that
comes to us all, I suppose, whatever our
walk in life, one that has been asked in
turn of all the works of men and even of
life itself.
It is no longer the fashion to write prologues or epilogues
to books; the reader must be left to draw his own conclusions.
But I was brought up in an old-fashioned school. If I may not
write a Farewell like old Fuller, or a page of Reflections like my
predecessor Dunnage, I will at least have my Hind-word, or
Hine-word; and I will employ it (I hope not unprofitably) in
answering that searching question. It does seem to go to the
root of the whole matter.
‘'What’s the use of it all?’ Well, first of all there is the
pleasure of it. I am one of those who in this vale of tears would
place a high value on pleasure. And here in this animated scene
of parish life, with Tom, Dick and Harry interacting with the
parson and the squire, I think you have the human comedy
perfectly displayed. For the writer, and in a measure for his
readers, there are additional pleasures: the romance of research,
the pure delights of discovery, the joy of a tale that is told.
Secondly, there is the instruction of it. Years ago, in the
Introduction to this work, I claimed that a parish history, properly
conceived, was speculum mundi, a little mirror of the world; and
now at the end of my labours I would repeat that claim. This
clod of ground, this piece of England, this speck of the universe,
does it not contain in microcosm all we need to know? The
far-fetched wonders of the earth, are they not here all the time,
here at our very feet? ‘The trail of man’s Odyssey, is it not
blazed in Hitchin soil?
Some of my readers, too hurriedly turning the pages, may
have said in their haste: ‘ Here is a medley of disjointed things,
438 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
a chronicle disordered and confused.’ I might answer, ‘ Is not
life the same? Did the course of History ever yet run smooth? ’
But those who read steadily and see the whole will, I think,
discern a little community of people, pastoral in their pursuits
and originally free, falling under bondage to one after another of
the marauding nations from oversea; yet even in the House of
Bondage maintaining the old speech, the stubborn English
characteristics, the love of their Hitchin fields. You can see the
waves of adversity breaking over their heads: wars and famines
and plagues, persecutions, oppressions and plunders; but nothing
daunts their indomitable minds; they emerge at last, bloody but
unbowed, masters in their own house, the light of freedom in
their eyes. Is not that instructive?
Look back over the centuries upon some of the works they
wrought. Observe the drift-ways and cattle-tracks as they evolve
into the King’s highway; the pack-horses supplanted in turn by
the carrier, the coach, the railway; the cottages of wattle and daub
giving place to ‘ fayre houses of tymber ’; the parish church, set
in the midst, expanding like a lovely flower, with aisles and
chantries and chapels; a market abounding more and more with
corn and malt and wool; a fair that draws merchants and pedlars
from the Hundred, from the county, from all over the three
shires; a gild whose masters and wardens, ‘ rich men furnished
with ability,’ rule over the crafts of the town. ‘To me that is a
spectacle both instructive and inspiring.
Mark, above all, the progress of these latter days—the achieve-
ment of the Worthies of the last century, who have made Hitchin
what it is. They found an evil-smelling, plague-ridden, unlit
and unenlightened town—a place where of necessity the life of the
citizens was ‘mean, nasty, brutish and short.’ All honour to
these Quakers, these philanthropists, these members of the
Local Board and of the Urban Council. It is to them we owe
our good roads, our fine water, our sewers, our gas and electric
light; our hospitals, libraries and town-halls, our savings banks,
friendly societies and nursing institutions; our open spaces and
our playing fields. We do well to be proud of our past. We are
not ashamed of the part we have played historically this last
thousand years. But we rejoice to have put our ancient house
into order; and we are ready now and well equipped to meet the
problems of to-morrow.
CONCLUSION 439
II
Thirdly, and now to beg the question, there is the usefulness
of it. In this matter let no one be misled by the pronouncements
of the historians; for when they pass judgment on History they
do but pass judgment on themselves. How could you expect
Thucydides, for example, to look on History otherwise than as
the merciless delineation of disasters; he was the slave of his own
style. How could you expect Gibbon, with his bloodless objec-
tivity, to find in it anything but ‘a register of the crimes, follies
and misfortunes of mankind’? How could you expect Lord
Balfour, with his Humeian indifference, his icy, philosophic
condescension, to utter any other verdict on humanity than his
‘disreputable episode on one of the meaner planets’? If an
average, warm-hearted man like James Howell acclaims History
as ‘ that great treasury of ‘Time and promptuary of heroic actions,’
he is parodied by a misanthrope in horn spectacles who derides
it as ‘that great catalogue of crime and prompter of dishonest
factions.”
I am of those—happily a growing number—who say that
History is not an epic, nor a philosophy, but a pageant. Whether
that pageant moves on to some far-off divine event I do not know.
Who knows? All one can say is that it appears to gather meaning
and momentum as it travels down the ages. Some are inclined
to make a larger claim. In the study of History, they declare,
you have not only a clue to the complexity of the past, but a sure
and certain guide to the problems of times present. Possibly
that may be so; yet Man cannot always be peering over his
shoulder at the past as he staggers forward into the future. He
must take heed to his own steps. He must put trust in his own
star.
The usefulness I claim lies deeper. For though the study of
History should not avail to cure these present discontents, it does
at least endue us with understanding, patience and equanimity;
and these are qualities of incalculable value in the conduct of
human affairs. In my judgment it is just those who have been
scornful of the past who are the first to miss their footing into
the future; it is just those who praise famous men and ponder
over their experience who learn to order their own lives aright and
leave the world the richer for their passing through it.
m me * a *
440 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
I have come up on to Hitchin Hill to write these valedictory
lines; the same hill that Chapman climbed in 1611 to finish his
master-work. ‘They say that here in his native air ‘ the learned
shepheard of faire Hitchinge hill ’ completed his translation of the
last twelve books of Homer’s Jitad in fifteen weeks; whereas I
over my little Hitchin Ziad have laboured for fifteen years.
Good it was for Chapman to come here out of the distraction of
the London streets, away from the battle of wits and his boon
companions at the Mitre; and good it is for me to have ransacked
the last library, to have scanned the last manuscript, to have put
the last portfolio away.
Under the shade of these elms how pleasant to lie at ease and
brood over this beloved town. It looks so tranquil in the evening
air, and at this distance there is not a sound. You can hardly
believe that battle, murder and sudden death, sedition, privy
conspiracy and rebellion, have ever happened here. And yet,
they say, if you put your ear to the grass you can still hear the
countless generations marching by: British and Roman and
Saxon, Danish and Norman and all. Alas that the ‘ iniquity of
oblivion hath blindly scattered her poppy ’; for it was the hands
of these forgotten dead men that fashioned the little town we
dwellin. ‘They have deserved to be remembered of us.
Well, I have done my best to recall their memory; and at
least I may claim to have dealt gently with their remains. If
there is anything I abhor, it is the spirit of those prying anti-
quaries, without a spark of piety in their nature, who rummage
into the past out of a rifling and critical disposition ; ‘ troublesome
vexers of the dead,’ as Bishop Earle called them, ‘ which after
long sparing must need rise up to the judgment of their castiga-
tions.” For us surely the first thought and the last thought
should be one of gratitude: ‘ Others have laboured and ye have
entered into their labours.’
The sun with a last benediction rests tenderly upon the
little town; then dips under Lilley Hoo. The long cool shadows
creep up the valley of the Hiz—forerunners of a trailing mist that
soon will fold everything to sleep. From Shillington and from
Graveley the rooks come home in thousands to their ancestral
trees. The larks in high heaven have sung their Nunc Dimittis.
It is time to salute the spirit of the place and go.
Listen! There is St. Mary’s bell; and it ringeth to evensong.
Let us make haste, for there is a prayer to be said in the Trinity
CONCLUSION 441
Chapel; and not only by myself, but by all good citizens of this
town, and by all those who are piously disposed amongst the
readers of this book: ‘ Eternal and ever-blessed God, who hast
made us the heirs of many ages, and set us in the midst of many
brethren, deepen our gratitude for Thy blessings as we have
received them from our fathers, our benefactors and our friends.
May we never forget the kindness which surrounds us in the
present, nor be unmindful of the treasures we inherit from the
past; but, having a lively sense of our debt to the brethren and
a loving remembrance of departed generations, may we reverently
carry forward the work of the ages and daily endeavour, as
faithful stewards, to enrich the same by a good conversation and
a godly life.’
FOOT’S WAGON
APPENDICES
NOTE
By reason of the prohibitive cost of printing the author has
been compelled to exclude the Appendices on Geology,
Archzology, Botany, Ornithology and Entomology, prepared by
E. F. D. Bloom, M.A., B.Sc., J. E. Little, M.A., and Arthur
Foster, F.E.S., M.B.0.U.
It is hoped to publish these studies with others in a volume
entitled The Natural History of Hitchin, of which the subscribers
to this History will receive a prospectus in due course. The
price will be approximately five shillings.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
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THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
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NAMES OF THE MEN OF HITCHIN WHO FELL IN
THE GREAT WAR, 1914-1918
Abbiss, A. J.
Adcock, K. W.
Albon, W.
Albone, A. H.
Allison, A.
Anderson, F.
Appleby, A. H.
Ayto, W. H.
Baker, F.
Baker, W.
Ballard, W. C.
Barber, W. G.
Barker, B.
Barker, C. M.
Barker, G.
Barker, H.
Barker, M.
Barrett, W. C
Bass, J.
Bath, W.
Bavington, H. L
Beech, F. W.
Beeton, J. W.
Bowler, J.
Bowman, H.
Bowman, H. J.
Brandon, H. E.
Brett, J. H.
Bridges, A. E.
Briston, E. H.
Brittain, A. W. W.
Broughton, W. J.
Brown, A.
Brown, E.
Brown, F. F.
Brown, F. J.
Brown, L.
Brown, W.
Brown, William
Buck, P.
Bullard, H. H.
Burch, A.
Burgess, F. B.
Burrows, W. J. T.
Butler, W. M.
Butts, W.
Cain, F.
Camfield, H. J.
Cannon, E.
Cannon, F.
Carrington, G.
Castle, W.
Catterill, H.
Chalkley, C.
Chalkley, S.
Chalkley, W.
Chalkley, W. F.
Chandler, E. P.
Chapman, E. E.
Chapman, S. E.
Charlton, J.
Clark, J.
Clarke, A. W.
Clarke, E.
Clarke, H. E.
Claydon, W.
Clayton, A.
Coleman, R.
Collins, J. W.
Constable, A.
Cooper, B. T.
Cooper, J. W.
Cooper, W.
Corkett, J.
Cornwell, J. G.
Cotton, E. H.
Couldrey, W. G. H.
Cousins, H.
Cox, C. T.
Crane, F. M.
Darby, H. F.
Darby, W. H.
Darton, F. A.
Day, B. D.
Day, F. W.
Day, L. N.
Davis, P. W.
Dear, J. F.
Denniss, C. J.
Dennis, J. H.
Dimmock, W. M.
Dixon, C.
Dobbs, A.
Doling, A.
Ellis, T. W.
Ellison, E.
Endersby, S.
English, C. W.
Evans, A.
Ewington, W.
Fairclough, J.
Farey, M. H.
Farr, J
Farrow, A.
Farrow, G. W. A.
Field, G. H.
File, H. W.
Fisher, H.
Fitt, H. S.
Foster, G.
Foster, H.
Foster, W. C.
Fowler, A. C. G.
Franklin, A.
French, A.
French, G. H.
French, H.
French, J.
Froy, B. W.
Froy, F.
Froy, J.
Garratt, L. G.
Gates, G.
Gates, T’. H.
Gentle, G.
Gilbert, A. W.
Gilbert, R.
Gilbertson, G. S.
Goodship, D.
Gough, J. R.
Grant, E. A.
Grant, L. P.
448 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Gray, A.
Green, F.
Green, H. J.
Green, J. H.
Gregory, A. J
Guthrie, C. J.
Haggar, G.
Haggar, H.
Hagger, F.
Hagger, H. C.
Hailey, J.
Hailey, W.
Hallock, H. J.
Halsey, E. C.
Harding, H.
Hare, C.
Harper, W. C.
Harpin, C.
Harvey, E. G.
Harwood, G.
Hawkins, A. P.
Hawkins, F.
Hawkins, H.
Hawkins, P. E.
Hill, J. A.
Hilton, F. W.
Hinstridge, F.
Holt, B.
Houghton, S. G. W.
Howard, S. J.
Hoye, A. P.
Hubbard, H.
Huckle, H. W.
Hulatt, P. C. E
Hull, J.
Hunt, B.
Hunt, C. H.
Hunt, F.
T’Anson, W
Izzard, C.
Jackson, F. A.
Jackson, G. H.
James, G.
James, T. W.
Jenkins, A. R.
Jenkins, W.
Jennings, J. R.
Johnson, W.
Jones, E. T.
King, E. P.
King, W.
Kingsley, J.
Kingsley, W.
Knight, G.
Langford, A. P.
Lawrence, W.
Lawson, W. C.
Lazenby, H.
Leete, F. E.
Leete, S. H.
Lewis, G. Y.
Lewis, H. J.
Lines, A. E.
Lusles, J.
Lovatt, W. A.
Ludford, A.
Manning, J.
Marchant, H. W.
Marsom, H. J.
Martin, H.
Massey, A.
Mather, J. W.
Matthews, W.
Marylin, F.
Minnis, A. W.
Monk, A.
Morgan, E. A.
Moulden, H. H.
Moulden, P.
Munby, E. J.
Muncey, A.
Munt, H. G.
Munt, T. R. H.
Negus, A. E.
Odell, E.
Odell, R. M.
Odell, W. J.
O’Keefe, H. W.
Orsman, A. B.
Packham, R.
Pallett, E. W.
Parcell, J. F.
Pateman, L. M.
Payne, T. R.
Pearce, W. C.
Pearmain, F.
Pearmain, W.
Pedley, C. H.
Pepper, W.
Phillipson, M
Pierson, E. A.
Pike, H. L
Pilsworth, A. J.
Powell, F.
Powell, J. T.
Primett, C.
Primett, F.
Primett, F. J.
Primett, H. S.
Pyman, C. K. L.
Pyman, R. L.
Ramsbotham, J.
Ransom, H. W.
Ransom, J.
Reed, F. J.
Reed, G. F.
Reynolds, C. G.
Reynolds, G. L.
Richmond, F. J.
Robinson, R. C.
Robson, E. G. U.
Rogers, G.
Rudd, W.
Rutland, B. A.
Rutland, H. G.
Ryall, G.
Sanders, A.
Sapsed, A.
Saunders, B.
Saunders, F. J.
Saunders, V. W.
Sawyer, B.
Scott, J.
Sell, R.
Sell, W. J.
Sells, C.
MEN WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 449
Sewell, J Summerfield, A. Upchurch, P. J.
Sharp, F. A Summerfield, H.
Sharp, G Walch, J. B. M.
Sharp, H Tansley, A. G Walker, C.
Sharp, S. Tansley, G. W. Waller, B.
Shepherd, H. Tansley, H. Waller, G.
Simmons, A. Tarrier, F. R. Warren, A.
Simmons, S. Taylor, E. Watson, B.
Smith, E. W. Taylor, J Weare, Cc.
Smith, F. Tavl ; N Webb, F. J.
Smith, F. W To ee Welch, J.
Smuth, J. O. eee West, A.
: Thomas, L. H. 4
Smith, S. aia Whaley, F. J.
Smith, Sidney ‘Thompson, F. J. Whitby, A.
Smith, T. Thornton, F. V. Whitby, A. H.
Smith, Walter Thorogood, T. G. White, H. C.
Smith, William Thrussell, A. S. White, H. S.
Spencer, G. A Titmus, A. White, L. J.
Spicer, C. Titmuss, F Whittred, F. E.
Spriggs, A. F. Titmuss, J. Williams, G.
Spurr, A. G. Titmuss, L. Wilshere, S. A.
Spurr, D. B. Tomlin, A. C. Wilson, W. C.
Spurr, W. G. Tomlin, B. Worbey, A.
Staughton, E. Tomlin, C. Worbey, A. W.
Steeley, A. Tomlin, G. Worsley, A.
Stevens, C. Tomlin, H. Wray, E.
Stevens, F. Tomlhn, O. L. Wright, C.
Stevens, H. Toms, H. Wright, E. L.
Stimpson, F. Topham, F.
Stokes, W. G. Tngg, G. Young, F. E., V.C.
TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEN OF HITCHIN
WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR
Shall we not praise your hearts’ triumphant bearing,
The stern resolve, the high and stainless faith;
For one far hope through hopeless years still daring
The bitterness of death?
Out on the winds of time lke banners soaring,
Your names unfurl the splendour of England’s truth:
Sons of the free in sacrifice outpouring
The strong, red wine of Youth.
VOL. II. FF
450
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Sunward you mount, whilst we whose souls are stricken
Haunt the lone paths of grieving and regret,
Where your strayed feet and lingering voices quicken
The pain we would forget.
Joyful and morning-eyed, blithe and clean-hearted,
Singing you pass in every pause of life;
Bravely companioned, from all sorrows parted,
Stilled from the throes of strife.
Now from this vale of tears we send you greeting;
The night wears on; earth’s transient dream shall cease—
Then come the celestial dawn, the marvellous meeting,
The City of God’s Peace.
REGINALD L. HIne.
oe me
HITCHIN WAR MEMORIAL
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA: VOLUME I
Page Line
14 18
24 #41
28 30
39 = 33
38 = 26
44 2!
50 17
62 23
7O 24
79 29
89 =—118
93 15
10Oo)— 21
107 17
107 86.23
Ilo = 30
I2I 23
127 20-1
144
148 I
1448 3&4
154 I
161
I7I 22
182 I
198 32
207
Delete ‘ 1900.’
For ‘ August 13’ read ‘ August 1.’
Insert quotation mark after ‘ inward
For ‘ ame ’ read ‘ same.’
For ‘ worth 2d.’ read ‘ worth 2s.’
Enclose 79. 4. 198 1n brackets.
For ‘ daughter ’ read ‘ grand-daughter.*
For ‘ vocat un’ read ‘ vocatum.’
For ‘ churches ’” read ‘ parishes.’
For ‘ 61 feet 6 inches’ read ‘ 67 feet’ and for ‘ 6 inches
less ’ read ‘ 8 feet less.’
For ‘ centered ’ read ‘ centred.’ Also on p. 108, 1. 18.
Reverse the second bracket.
Instead of ‘217. 6’ read ‘ Fuller, Abel Red:vivus, 11, 319.’
The nave roof was restored at the sole expense of Francis
Lucas.
The window to those who fell in the Great War was given
to the Church by Thomas Fenwick Harrison.
For ‘ Isaac James’ read ‘Wm. Dunnage,’ and add this
reference to line 34 (28. 151).
Reverse the second ‘ e ’ 1n ‘ medi®val.’
Delete Dunnage’s unauthenticated reference to Walling-
ford, and the footnote.
Footnote x1x ‘The legend should read: S’ Costatis Frm’
Carmelicar de Hyche. ‘The second ‘c’ 1n ‘ Carmelicar’”
is wrongly cut on the matrix. It should of course be ‘ t.’
Advance the first quotation mark on to the word ‘ old.’
Delete the word ‘ of ’ from 1. 3 and insert it at the begin-
ning of |. 4.
Footnote vu. Add ‘s’ to ‘ horse.’
Footnote xiv. For ‘ reused ’” read ‘ re-used.’
For ‘ way ’ read ‘ work.’
For ‘ ordinance ’ read ‘ ordnance.’
There 1s no proof of Bunyan having been ‘ pressed.’ It
1s more commonly supposed that he enlisted out of
pique at his father re-marrying within a few months of
his first wife’s death.
Plate facing. For ‘ after Van Dyck’ read ‘ by Van Dyck.’
In the account of Hitchin Pnory, in Country Life
for October 17 and 24, 1925, which I took as my
authority, Mr. H. Avray Tipping had referred to this
picture as being after Van Dyck. In a subsequent issue,
which by mischance I did not see, he corrected his muis-
take and made it clear that the painting was a genuine
work by the master’s own hand.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
452
Page Line
207 26
208 28
216 «1
224 24
227 9
231 6-11
236 = tr
245 20-1
280
319 20
333-15
341% 10
356—ss«8
358 8
361 20
364 9
372 16
For ‘ Sir John Docwra’ in footnote xx read ‘ St. John
Docwra.’
For ‘ ngded ’ read ‘ ridged.’
For ‘ Whitcomb ’ read ‘ Widdecombe.’
For ‘ glimpse ’ read ‘ scan.’
Professor J. H. Clapham suggests that I should substitute
‘revived’ for ‘ devised.” The use of passes can be
traced back to the reign of Richard IT.
It should have been noted that these lines are adapted
from Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel.
For ‘ paraphrases ” read ‘ paraphrase.’
For ‘ grandson of the last Pnor’ read ‘ great-grand-
nephew of the Prior, 1501-1527.’
The footnote (1) should read ‘ Vide Harrison’s Description
of Britaine, in the 1587 issue of Holinshed, cap. 19.”
For ‘ Brigg ’ read ‘ Briggs.’
Delete ‘ the Rev.” from ‘ the Rev. H. R. Wilton Hall.’
For ‘ Samual ’ read ‘ Samuel.’
For ‘ Foster, Miss J. F.’ read ‘ Foster, John F.’
For ‘ Gertrude ’ read ‘ Grace.”
For ‘ Cockens ’ read ‘ Crescent.’
For ‘ J. Prior Morr ’ read ‘ J. Reid Moir.’
For ‘ A. H. Palmer ’ read ‘ G. H. Palmer.’
HITCHIN WORTHIES
The author has in preparation a companion volume of Hitchin
Worthies, which will contain lives of the following townsmen. There
will in addition be a number of ‘ biographies in brief.’
AGNES BEAUMONT, the persecuted disciple of John Bunyan
GrEorGE BEAVER, town surveyor and diarist
Sir HENRY BESSEMER, inventor of new process for making steel
ANN BRADLEY, founder of the Baptist Sunday School
FRANCIS BRAGGE, poet, barrister and vicar of Hitchin
WILLIAM BROMEFIELD, Quaker, courtier and adventurer
GEORGE CHAPMAN, Elizabethan poet and playwright
DANIEL COULSON, tailor and diarist
JOHN CURLING, traveller, magistrate and author
WILLIAM Dawson, botanist, schoolmaster and librarian
WILLIAM DraGE, apothecary and astrological writer
SAMUEL DRAPER, gipsy, fiddler and buffoon
JoHN EVERETT, churchman and highwayman
W. J. Fircnu, head master of the British School
OswaLp Foster, doctor and philanthropist
ALBERT EBENEZER Fox, poacher, sportsman and gentleman-at-large
PHOEBE GLAISYER, Quaker and duiarist
JoHN HAWKINS, ‘ the uncrowned King of Hitchin ’
MarK HILDESLEY, vicar, diarist and bishop
RoBErRT HINDE, original of Sterne’s ‘ Uncle Toby’
SAMUEL JAMES, Baptist minister and diarist
Francis Lucas, banker, wit and poet
JaMeEs Lucas, the ‘ Hermit of Redcoats ’
SAMUEL Lucas, brewer and watercolour artist
WILLIAM Lucas, diarist and country gentleman
Dr. MANSELL, quack doctor and lunatic-at-large
JosePpH NIBLOCK, master of the Free School and divine
RaLpw RaADc.LiFFE, playwright, schoolmaster and squire
F. P. De-tm&-Rapciirre, Master of Hounds and author of The Noble
Science
WILLIAM RANSOM, Quaker, botanist and antiquary
FREDERIC SEEBOHM, author of The English Village Community, etc.
THOMAS SHILLITOE, Quaker minister and diarist
SarRAH SMITHSON, traveller, diarist and philanthropist
LAWSON 'THOMPSON, connoisseur, collector and wit
DANIEL TIMES, attorney and diarist
WILLIAM WILSHERE, Lord of Hitchin Manor
BIBLIOGRAPHY
N.B.—Where sufficient particulars of any authority are set out in the
text, that authority is not repeated in this bibliography.
(461) 1086.
(462) 1204.
(463) 1204.
(464) 1310
(circa).
(465) 1366.
(466) 1366.
(467) 1380.
(468) 1404.
(469) 1405.
(470) 1411.
(471) 1412.
MINSDEN
Minsden in the Domesday Survey. And see
translation and notes by J. Horace Round. Vict.
County History, Herts, Vol. 1, p. 302.
Grant of the manor of Minsden to Hugh de Baliol
on forfeiture of Guy de Bovencourt’s heir (Rot. de
oblatis et fin. Rec. Com. 212).
Disseisin of Elyas de Eston, consequent upon the
forfeiture of Guy de Bovencourt’s heir (Pipe Roll,
6 John, m. 3d.); and see, for his reinstatement,
Curia Regis Roll 26, Easter Term, 4 John, m. 1.
Grant from Simon, son of Adam, to the Prior of
Wymondley of lands in Meddlesdene to found an
anniversary for the soul of his son Richard, deceased
(Add. ch. 28, 690).
Grant to John de Beverle that he should hold the
manor with all liberties, free customs and appurten-
ances as fully as Sir Edward de Kendale held it
(Pat. Roll, 39 Edw. ITI, Pt. 2, m. 4).
Grant of free warren to John de Beverle (Chart.
Roll, 39 and 40 Edw. III, m. 7, No. 18).
Inquisition on the death of John de Beverle (Chan.
Ing. P.M., 4 Ric. II, No. 11).
Inquisition on the death of Sir John Dauntesey
(Chan. Ing. P.M., 6 Hen. IV, No. 19).
Grant of lands, late of Sir John Dauntesey, to
Thomas de la Croys and Peter Walbere during the
minority of Walter Dauntesey (Pat. Rolls, 7 Hen. IV,
Pt. 1, m. 36).
Inquisition on the death of William Langford
(Chan. Ing. P.M., 13 Hen. IV, No. 32).
Inquisition on the proving of the age of Walter
Dauntesey, owner of a third share in Minsden
Manor (Inq. a.q.d., C. 137-45).
(472) 1419.
(473) 1490.
(474) 1493.
(475) 1501.
(476) 1517.
(477) 1485-
1546.
(478) 1555.
(479) 1572.
(480) 1579.
(481) 1608—
1641.
(482) 1650.
(483) 1670.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 455
Inquisition on the death of Robert Langford (Chanc.
Ing. P.M., 7 Hen. V, No. 3).
Two terriers of the common fields at Myndlesden
(B.M. Add. Rolls. 28, 879: 28, 880).
Inquisition on the death of Thomas Langford
(Chan. Ing. P.M., Ser. 2, ix, 67).
Sale of Minsden Manor by Sir John Langford and
Katharine his wife to William Lytton (Feet of
Fines, Herts. Hil., 17 Hen. VII).
Inquisition on the death of William Lytton (Chan.
Inq. P.M., Ser. 2, xxxiii. 5).
Bequests to Minsden Chapel under the following
wills: John Pulter, 1485, P.C.C. 3 Milles; James
Chetham, 1523, Arch. Hunts, 11, 262; John Emmyng,
1524, P.C.C. 33 Bodfelde; Margerie Astrye,
1524, P.C.C. 25 Bodfelde; George Burwell, 1540,
Arch. Hunts, v, 137; Margaret Grave, 1545, Arch.
Hunts, vii, 10; John Godfrey, 1544, Arch. Hunts,
vii, 136.
Inventory of the furniture in Minsden Church
(Augment. Off. Miscell., Vol. 467, Rec. Off.).
Grant by Queen Elizabeth from Gorhambury to
Richard Hill and William James of (zmter alia) an
acre of land at Minsden held for the maintenance
of a light there (Pat. Roll, 14 Eliz., Pt. 2, No. 1083).
A rental of the manor of Menlesden (B.M. Add.
MSS. 29438, fol. 14).
Bishops’ transcripts of the registers of Minsden
Chapel in the Episcopal Library at Lincoln. A
copy prepared by Canon C. W. Foster, F.S.A., is
in the possession of Reginald L. Hine. The origi-
nals have been lost for many years past, and these
transcripts are therefore of great value. Some
portions have been printed by William Briggs in
The Herts Genealogist, Vol. ii, pp. 288-296.
Report by the Commissioners to inquire into the
state of Ecclesiastical Benefices, showing the decay
of the fabric and cessation of Services (B.M. Lansd.
MSS. 459, fol. 105).
The Answer of the Lady Alissimon Reade, wife of
Sir John Reade, unto printed papers entituled A
456 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(484) 1683-
1690.
(485) 1700.
(486) 1700.
(487) 1700-
1719.
(488) 1760
(circa).
(489) 1798
(cerca).
(490) 1825.
(491) 1836-
1856.
(492) 1884.
True state of the case between Sir John Reade and
Dame Alissimon his wife, which papers being a
second time printed and published by the command
of Sir John Reade, she conceives herself bound in
defence of her honour to Invalid such libels by her
witness sworn in the Court of Arches and Delegates.
A collection of original documents and precedents
relating to cases in the court of the Archdeaconry
of Huntingdon, in which Hitchin then lay, com-
piled by Mark Newman, gentleman of Hemingford
Grey, Hunts, a notary public practising in the
court. Two books (Liber A and B). See Dr. G.
Herbert Fowler’s introductory notes (MSS. now in
the custody of the Beds County Records Committee.
Abstracts of all the Hitchin cases have been made for
the author by F. G. Emmison, Clerk of Records).
Citation of Joseph Arnold of Langley at the in-
stance of John Heath, churchwarden of Minsden,
‘ for detaining the Chapell font ’ (MS. in the posses-
sion of Reginald L. Hine).
The descent of the manor of Minsden. The
Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, Sir Henry
Chauncy, Edition 1826, Vol. ii, pp. 176—7.
Court Rolls of the manor of Minsdenbury (MSS.
in the possession of Messrs. Hawkins & Co.).
On the Ruins of Minsden or Minzell Chapel. A
poem by one Wallis, usher to the Rev. Edward
Hickman, Schoolmaster of Hitchin (MS. once in
the possession of William Dunnage, and now in that
of Reginald L. Hine).
The preaching of Daniel Skingle at Minsden
Chapel (MS. note by Richard Gough. Gough’s
Hertfordshire 18, Bodleian Lib., p. 161).
Minsden Chapel, a poem communicated by Miss
Louisa Hinde (Gentleman’s Magazine for Septem-
ber). An earlier version of this poem appears in
Isaac James’s History of Hitchin, above cited
(21. 243).
Lists of quit rents in the manor of Minsdenbury
(MSS. in the possession of Messrs. Hawkins & Co.).
Accounts of Daniel Skingfe and of his preaching in
(493) 1891.
(494) 1900.
(495) 1909.
(496) 1912.
(497) 1546.
(498) 1573-
(499) 1604.
(500) 1614-
1698.
(501) 1634.
(502) 1639.
(503) 1645.
(504) 1646.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 457
Minsden Chapel (Nonconformity in Herts, William
Urwick, pp. 275, 527, 598, 642). N.B.—There are
many contemporary references to him in the Church
Book of the Hertford Independents.
The east window at Minsden Chapel (Notes on
St. Ippolyt’s Church and Parish. Rev. Canon
Davys. St. Albans Architectural and Archeological
Soc. Trans., pp. 36-39).
The Reades in Hertfordshire. A. C. Bickley
(Home Counties Magazine, Vol. ii, pp. 105-111).
Minsden Chantry certificate. Chantry certificates
for Hertfordshire. J. E. Brown, p. 30.
Minsden Chapel. W. Frampton Andrews (East
Herts Arch. Soc. Trans., Vol. v, pp. 85—go).
THE BAPTISTS
Articles against Nicholas Dier, otherwise Dere,
curate of Hichyn, and the pronouncement of excom-
munication against him (Lincoln Episcopal Court
Book, 1525-1526, ff. 72-73 and 77d-78. Tran-
script and translation amongst the author’s MSS.).
A letter to the Bisshop of Lincoln with a complainte
exhibited againste one Chambers, Vicar of Hitchin
(Register of Privy Council, Vol. x, f. 357).
Petition of Puritans round about Royston to King
James I (Cal. S.P.D., 1580-1625, p. 449).
Extracts of all the Bunyan entries in the registers
of St. Mary’s Church, Hitchin (MS. in the possession
of Reginald L. Hine).
An abstract of the Visitation of the Diocese of
Lincoln (Cal. S.P.D., Vol. 274, No. 12).
Certificate of Commissaries Court as to John
Pennyfather’s words at The Sun, Hitchin, on
May 11th (Cal. S.P.D., Vol. 420, No. 138).
Christ the effect not the cause of the love of God.
Or an answer to this question, viz. Whether Christ
in His coming did purchase life and salvation for
all, or only for the elect. Paul Hobson.
Practical] Divinity, or a Helpe through the blessing
458 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(505) 1647.
(506) 1655.
(507) 1658.
(508) 1660.
(509) 1663.
(510) 1663-
1664.
(511) 1666.
(512) 1668-
1688.
(513) 1669-
1841.
(514) 1672.
of God to lead men more to look within themselves
(Thomason Tracts, E. 1167, 3).
The discovery of Truth. Paul Hobson.
Fourteen queries and ten absurdities about the
extent of Christ’s death and the nature and truth
of election. Paul Hobson.
A contention for Truth in two several publique
Disputations before thousands of people at Clement
Dane Church, between Mr. Guning of the one part
and Mr. Denne on the other concerning the Baptisme
of Infants, whether Lawful or Unlawful (Thomason
Tracts, E. 963, 1).
An Epistle recommended to all the prisons in this
City and Nation to such as chuse Restraint than
the violation of their conscience. Henry Den(ne)
(Thomason Tracts, E. 1081).
Schismatics, An Account of persons with there
quallities and places of aboad. Refers to Holcroft,
Oddy and Lock (S.P.D. Car. II, Vol. Ixxiii, 88).
N.B.—This has been printed in the Transactions
of the Congregational Historical Soc. for 1912,
Vol. v, pp. 242~—258, and 301-317).
The examination, petitions and letters of Paul
Hobson (Cal. S.P.D., Vol. Ixxix, 123; Ixxx, 122;
Ixxx1l, 37, 103-11 ; Ixxxv, 103; Cil, 142).
Petition of Francis Holcroft, prisoner in Cambridge
Castle to the King (Cal. S.P.D., Car. II, cxx, 165).
Extracts from the Herts Quarter Session Rolls, not
included in Hardy’s Notes and Extracts (72), relating
to John Wilson, John Thorowgood, Robert Shipsea
and other members of the ‘Tilehouse Street Meeting
(MSS. in the possession of Reginald L. Hine,
numbered and filed).
The Church Book of the Bunyan Baptist Meeting
at Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, Vol. 1. MS. in the
Tilehouse Street Church safe. A copy of all
material entries has been made by Charles Loftus
Barham.
Notes on the Licences issued under the Declaration
of Indulgence, 1672, by George Lyon Turner.
See portfolios of Beds and Herts for John Bunyan,
(515) 1674.
(516) 1692-
1876.
(517) 1701-
1703.
(518) 1704.
(519) 1705.
(520) 1710.
(521) 1717-
1837.
(522) 1726.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 459
Nehemiah Cox, John Wilson, Francis Holcroft
(Dr. Williams’s Library, Lyon Turner MSS., No.
18).
The narrative of the persecution of Agnes Beaumont
in 1674 (B.M. Egerton MSS. 2128, 2414). The
2414 MS. has been edited by G. B. Harrison.
Constable. 1929.
A collection of copyhold admissions, enfranchise-
ments, grants of right of way, conveyances, deeds
of trust, appointments of new trustees, certificates of
registration, etc., relating to the Baptist Meeting
House at Hitchin (MSS. in the Church safe).
Paper relating to the attempted settlement of John
Bunyan’s eldest son John in Hitchin and two
informations against him (St. Mary’s records. See
bundle labelled Settlements, and Herts Quarter
Session Rolls, Vol. for 1701, No. 116, and for
1703, No. 4).
References to Hitchin Nonconformity in a political
survey of the district by Defoe (Hist. MSS. Comm.
Rep. XV, Portland MSS., App., Pt. 4, 153 and 154).
September 2nd. Letter subscribed by the pastor,
John Wilson, and nine members of the chapel,
inviting John Needham to be assistant pastor.
Also a letter from Wilson to Thomas Hollis respect-
ing the same (MSS. framed and hanging in the
vestry of the Tilehouse Street Chapel).
A charge exhibited against and a Church Admonition
unto Brother G. Fitzjohn, an offending member in
a Church of Christ at Hitchin over which Mr. John
Wilson and John Needham are Co-Pastors (Original
MS. formerly in the possession of John Bunnell
of Southampton Row. Printed in the London
Christian Instructor, Vol. i, p. 686).
Original registers of Births, 1717-1837, and of
Burial, 1785-1835, of members of the Tilehouse
Street Baptist meeting. Deposited at Somerset
House. For earlier periods, the first vol. of the
Church book can be consulted.
The Peace and happiness of the Church, the
Affectionate Concern of a good Man. A Sermon
460 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(523) 1742.
(524) 1742-
1824.
(525) 1760.
(526) 1762.
(527) 1763-
1821.
(528) 1768.
(529) 1771.
(530) 1772.
(531) 1773-
occasioned by the death of the Reverend Thos.
Marsom, late Minister of the Gospel. John
Needham, Minister at Tilehouse Street, Hitchin.
N.B.—A copy belonging to Needham’s daughter is
preserved in the Bunyan Museum at Bedford.
A Sermon occasioned by the much lamented death
of the Rev. Mr. John Needham. Preached at
Hitchin, February the 18th, and published at the
request of the Church and Family. Samuel
Wilson. N.B.—Copy at Dr. Williams’s Library.
The Churches Booke as to its stock in Monie.
2 vols. Accounts of income from investments and
of general expenditure on the ministry, services and
fabric of the Salem Chapel (MSS. in the Chapel
safe).
Abstract of the Gracious Dealings of God with
several Eminent Christians in their conversion and
sufferings. ‘Taken from Authentic Manuscripts
and Published for the comfort and Establishment of
Christian minds. Samuel James, Hitchin, 1760.
Memoirs and religious experiences of the author’s
grandfather and of Mary Churchman, Agnes
Beaumont and other pious women of these parts.
Evangelical Hymns and Songs. Benjamin Wallin.
N.B.—He was John Needham’s pupil, and a fre-
quent preacher at the Tilehouse Chapel.
The Poor’s Book of Salem Chapel (MS. in the
Chapel safe).
Hymns, Devotional and Moral, on Various Subjects
collected chiefly from the Holy Scriptures. John
Needham.
The Importance of Family Religion. Benjamin
Wallin.
Letter from the Rev. Samuel James to the Congrega-
tion, when he was at Bristol for his health (MS.
formerly in the possession of Isaac James. Copied
into his MS. History of Hitchin, p. 122).
The Happiness of the Saints in a Separate State.
A sermon preached at Hitchin, August 27, 1773, at
the funeral of the Rev. Samuel James, A.M.,
Benjamin Wallin.
(532) 1779.
(533) 1782.
(534) 1790.
(535) 1794.
(536) 1797.
(537) 1802.
(538) 1802-
1803.
(539) 1807.
(540) 1808-
1814.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 461
The ancient believers transition from mortality to
life. Benjamin Wallin.
The faithful minister rewarded. A sermon occa-
sioned by the death of the Reverend Benjamin
Wallin.
MS. History of the Baptist Church at Hitchin.
Isaac James (Dr. Williams’s Library, Walter
Wilson MSS., No. L. 2).
National Calamities. ‘Tokens of the Divine Dis-
pleasure. A Fast Sermon by Samuel Button, some-
time assisting at Tilehouse Street Chapel, Hitchin.
The Beauties of [Matthew] Henry. John Geard.
An Essay on the sign of the prophet Jonah, intended
to remove the deistical objection. Isaac James.
The Nonconformist’s Memorial, being an account
of the lives, sufferings and printed works of the
two thousand ministers ejected from the Church of
England chiefly by the Act of Uniformity, August 24,
1662. Originally written by Edmund Calamy,
D.D. Abridged, corrected and methodized by
Samuel Palmer. 2nd edition. Contains lives of
John Wilson, Benjamin King, William Haworth,
Francis Holcroft and other Hitchin Divines.
Memoirs of John Geard, with some account of his
Ancestors and Descendants, comprehending among
other particulars some Anecdotes relative to his
hopeful Conversion, call to the Ministry, Settlement
at Hitchin, various exercises of his mind at different
periods, and his Trials and Mercies. 2 vols. (MS.
in the possession of C. J. Geard (i), 80, Park Drive,
Port Elizabeth, S.A.). Forty pages of extracts
from this MS. appear in Vol. 111 of Nonconformist
Churches at Hail Weston, a MS. compiled by Dr.
Joseph Rix, now preserved in Dr. Wiiliams’s
Library.
The History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches
and Meeting Houses in London. Walter Wilson.
See Accounts of John Wilson, i, 143; Benjamin
i. After hunting for this precious MS. for ten years, I traced itto Mr. C. J.
Geard’s home in South Africa, and I wish to express my thanks to him for
sending it across the seas for my inspection.
462 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(541) 1811.
(542) 1812—
1864.
(543) 1814.
(544) 1815.
(545) 1817.
(546) 1824.
(547) 1831.
(548) 1832.
(549) 1833.
(550) 1840—
I1gOo.
(551) 1841-
1885.
(552) 1843-
1849.
King, iv, 63, 103; Isaac James, iv, 271; John
Needham, iv, 291; Francis Holcroft, iv, 412.
A History of the English Baptists. Joseph Ivimey.
Vol. 11, pp. 187-201.
A Register of the Sabbath School at Tilehouse
Street Meeting (MS. in the custody of Kingsley
Russell, of Hitchin).
The Benefit of afflictions to good men. A sermon
delivered, at the funeral of the late Mr. Samuel
Bradley, in the Meeting House of the Rev. John
Geard by William Parry (MS. in the possession of
Reginald L. Hine).
The Pilgrim’s Progress done into familiar verse.
Isaac James.
Original Hymns and Poems upon various Religious
Subjects. Samuel James, son of the Minister of
Tilehouse Street Chapel, Hitchin.
Diary of Samuel James and Memoir of him by his
son Isaac James. Printed at the end of the 1824
edition of An Abstract of the Gracious Dealings
of God with several Eminent Christians, etc. See
above, No. 525.
The power of religion exemplified in the remarkable
experience of Agnes Beaumont. ‘Thomas Middle-
ditch.
Anecdotes of the Foster family. John Geard.
Printed as a broadsheet. The MS. of it is in the
possession of Reginald L. Hine.
Prayer Meetings: a circular letter. The Rev.
John Broad.
Portraits and photographs of John Geard, George
Short, F. J. Marchant, C. S. Hull, W. J. Harris,
John Broad, John Aldis, Thomas Williams, H.
Jenner, and James McCleery, and paintings and
drawings of the old Chapel in the vestry of Tilehouse
Street Church.
The Church Book of the Bunyan Baptist Meeting
at Tilehouse Street, Hitchin. Vol. ii (MS. in the
Chapel safe).
A book of receipts and expenditure in connection
with the new chapel (MS. in the Chapel safe).
BIBLIOGRAPHY 463
(553) 1845-— Salem Chapel Burial Ground account (MS. in the
1874.
(554) 1855.
(555) 1856.
(556) 1858.
(557) 1867-
1872.
(558) 1875.
(559) 1884.
(560) 1887.
(561) 1888.
(562) 1889.
(563) 1891.
Chapel safe).
Accounts of Tilehouse Street Chapel, Hitchin, and
of Holcroft, Wilson, Needham, James and Geard,
its successive pastors. Interspersed in the five
volumes compiled by Dr. Joseph Rix, entitled
Nonconformist Churches at Hail Weston (MS.
at Dr. Williams’s Library. There are separate
indices to each volume).
Brief outline of the Tilehouse Street Church,
Hitchin, with a few anecdotes of the Foster Family
by Edward Foster of Cadwell near Hitchin.
The Wicket-Gate Entered, and the Bridgeless River
Crossed. ‘The early experiences and peaceful death
of Mr. Thomas Wilson, who died at Hitchin,
May 4, 1858. Contains references to the ministry
of the Rev. John Geard.
Accounts of expenditure in connection with Salem
Chapel (MSS. in Chapel safe).
A History of the Churches forming the Hertford-
shire and Bedfordshire Baptist Association, edited
by H. C. Leonard. Hitchin, pp. 6-8.
Nonconformity in Herts. William Urwick, M.A.,
pp. 634-650. N.B.—The copy in the St. Albans
Public Library is the author’s own copy, and has
many valuable additions in his handwriting.
John Bunyan, his Life, Times and Work. John
Brown. 3rd edition. See Index for Hitchin,
Henry Denne, John Wilson, William Lindall, Sir
Francis Wingate. The reference to Nehemiah
Cox, not in the Index, is page 248. The 5th or
Tercentenary edition by Frank Mott Harrison,
1928, should also be consulted.
Some Bunyan traditions. Frederick Hastings.
Printed in the Sunday at Home.
September 22nd. A paper on Nonconformity in
Hitchin read by the Rev. William Urwick, M.A.,
of St. Albans, on the Bicentenary of Queen Street
Congregational Church.
The History of Tilehouse Street Baptist Church.
Rey. Thomas Williams, B.A.
464
(566) 1904.
(567) 1906.
(568) 1907.
(569) 1908-
1927.
(570) 1909.
(571) 1911.
(572) 1912.
(573) 1912.
(574) 1919.
(575) 1919.
(576) 1920.
(577) 1923.
(578) 1927.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(564) 1895.
(565) 1895.
Congregationalism in Melbourn. G. Porter Chap-
ple. Contains references to Holcroft, Oddy and Lock.
The Puritan in Melbourn. William M. Palmer.
Contains references to Holcroft, Oddy and Lock.
Divine Training in the life and experience of the
late Mrs. W. F. Morriss of Hitchin.
The History of Royston. Alfred Kingston.
Chapter viii.
Becken Grove Baptist Church, Watford. Rev.
James Stuart. References to Henry Denne and
Paul Hobson, p. 6, and to Samuel James, p. 30.
Extracts relating to the Tilehouse Street Church
and its Ministers, taken by Reginald L. Hine from
the Transactions of the Baptist Historical Society.
John Bunyan and his local associations. A paper
read to the Society of Arts and Letters at Hitchin
by the Rev. C. F. Bryer (Original MS. in the
possession of his family).
Original Records of Early Nonconformity under
Persecution and Indulgence. Professor G. Lyon
Turner. 3 vols. Hitchin references Vol. ii, p. 880;
Vol. ili, pp. 295, 474, 748.
The Early English Dissenters in the light of recent
research. Champlin Burrage. Reference to Paul
Hobson, Vol. 11, 304-305.
A Hertfordshire Worthy: Jonas Thurrowgood of
Hitchin. W. B. Gerish.
The History of Tilehouse Street Baptist Church,
Hitchin. The Rev. James McCleery.
Account of the Celebration of the 250th Anniver-
sary of the Tilehouse Street Church (Hertfordshire
Express, June 28, 1919).
Traditions of the Tilehouse Street Chapel and of
the Foster Family, taken down by Reginald L. Hine
from the dictation of Matthew Henry Foster,
deacon since 1866.
A History of British Baptists. W. T. Whitley.
See pp. 68, 80, 104, 136, 151, for Henry Denne;
70 and 71 for Edward Cresset.
John Bunyan. Gwilym O. Griffith. No index,
but see pp. 132, 210-214, 272.
See
(579) 1928.
(580) 1641.
(581) 1673-
1846.
(582) 1689-
1690.
(583) 1690-
1805.
(584) 1691-
1726.
VOL. IT.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 465
John Bunyan’s England. C. Bernard Cockett.
See pp. 18, 21, 23 for views and description of
Wainwood Dell, Wainwood Cottage, Bunyan’s
Chair in Tilehouse Street Church and the tablet
to Agnes Beaumont.
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS
The justification of the Independent Churches of
Christ, briefly declaring that the Congregations of
the Saints ought not to have Dependency in Govern-
ment upon any other, or Direction in Worship from
any other, than their Head and Lawgiver. Kather-
ine Chidley (Thomason Tracts, E. 174, 7).
Minutes of the Church Book at Hertford. Contains
many references to the Hitchin Congregationalists
worshipping under William Haworth and his
successor, John Guyse.
Certificates under the Toleration Act, 1689, of
meetings of Protestant Dissenters ‘in Edward
Hurst’s house at Hitchin,’ ‘in the barne of Ralph
Bigg,’ and ‘ at a house built for that purpose in a
certain piece of ground late bought of Alice Bon-
field ’ (Entered at the end of the Register Book, No. 8,
1665-1667, of wills proved in the Archdeaconry of
Huntingdon, now kept at Somerset House).
A packet of loose papers kept in the Chapel safe,
including early surrenders and admissions of the
copyhold property on which the building stands,
a copy of the registration under the Toleration Act,
1689, and sundry accounts for the repair of the
chapel and vestry.
A Church Book kept for my own private use to
register many incidental things and especially my
Preaching, Baptizing and Administering the Lord’s
Supper, with a register of the names of my pastoral
flock. Joseph Hussey, sometime pastor of Maden-
croft Meeting and Back Street Meeting, Hitchin,
and subsequently of the Bridge Street Presbyterian
GG
466 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(585) 1692.
(586) 1694.
(587) 1697.
(588) 1704.
(589) 1706.
(59°) 1707.
(591) 1708.
(592) 1715-
1822.
(593) 1717.
Meeting at Cambridge (MS. in the possession of
Emmanuel Congregational Church, Cambridge).
The Gospel-Feast opened, or the Great Supper of
the Parable discovered in several Sermons. Joseph
Hussey.
Letter of Edward Hitchin concerning the miraculous
cure of David Wright in the Back Street Meeting
Place.
Turner’s Remarkable Providences, Chap. cxxxil,
p. 112. An account of David Wright’s miraculous
cure.
A Warning from the Winds, a sermon preached by
Joseph Hussey on January 19, 1703/4, being the
day of Publicke Humiliation for the late terrible and
awakening storm of Wind sent in great Rebuke
upon this Kingdom; and now set forth to have been
inflicted as a punishment of the General Contempt
cast in England upon the work of the Holy Ghost:
to which is subnected a laborious Exercitation upon
Ephesians ii. 2, to defend this text against the
Common mistake that the winds are raised by Satan
under the Divine Permission.
The Infant’s Cause Pleaded, Cleared and Vindi-
cated; or the Concurrent Harmony of all Parts of
Holy Scripture, for the Covenant, Interest, Church
Membership and Baptism of the Infants of Believers.
Edward Hitchin. Isaac Watts joins with three
others in an Address to the Reader.
God’s operations of Grace, but no Offers of His
Grace. Joseph Hussey.
A letter from the Cobler of Gloster to the Curier
of Hitchin: being remarks on a book entitled The
Infant’s cause Pleaded.
Church Book of the Independent Meeting House
at Back Street now known as the Queen Street
Congregational Church. The first volume. A
copy of all material entries has been made by
Charles Loftus Barham. The original is kept in
the Chapel safe.
The Prevalency of Prayer. 'T(homas) A(Idridge).
Contains an account of the miraculous cure of
(594) 1739.
(595) 1739.
(596) 1740.
(597) 1742.
(598) 1749.
(599) 1772.
(600) 1772-
1837.
(601) 1774.
(602) 1785.
(603) 1791.
(604) 1794.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 467
David Wright at the Hitchin Independent Meeting-
house.
Account of the preaching of George Whitefield at
Hitchin (His journal, under this year, Friday,
May 25).
A Profession of Faith, argued from the Priesthood
of Christ. Joseph Pitts.
The Right Way of Preaching Christ, opened and
enforced. The Rev. Joseph Pitts (The Evangelical
Preacher, 1802, Vol. i, pp. 51-72).
Faith the best Preservative against Fainting. A
Sermon by the Rev. Joseph Pitts (The Evangelical
Preacher, 1802, Vol. 11, pp. 132-152).
Submission with Praise to God on the Death of
Hopeful Children, a Sermon preached by Joseph
Pitts on occasion of the Death of his only Son, who
departed this life in the 16th year of his age, with
some account of his character, his Behaviour in his
sickness and his last Words.
Free Thoughts on the late application of some
Dissenting Munisters to Parliament. Edward
Hitchin (Copy in the Bodleian. 8° B.S.X., 217).
Original registers of birth and baptism, 1772-1837,
and burial, 1786-1836, of members of the Hitchin
Back Street Meeting deposited at Somerset House.
For earlier periods see the Church Book, Vol. 1.
Account of the death of the Rev. Edward Hitchin
(Gentleman’s Magazine, p. 46).
Sermons adapted to the Family and closet by the
late Rev. James Webb, Minister of the Independent
Meeting in Dead Street, Hitchin.
A defence of the Character of Joseph Hussey against
the aspersions of Mr. O’Leary (There is a copy in
the Bodleian. None in the B.M.).
Youthful Piety Exemplified in the Character and
Dying Converse of Mr. Ebenezer Griffiths, the only
son of the Rev. John Griffiths, Pastor of the Indepen-
dent Congregation at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, to
which is prefixed a Serious Address to the young
People of that Congregation by the Afflicted Father
of the Deceased.
468 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(605) 1795.
(606) 1803.
(607) 1807.
(608) 1808-
1814.
(609) 1810.
(610) 1813.
(611) 1817.
(612) 1819.
(613) 1819.
(614) 1820—
1880.
(615) 1821.
Account of the Rev. William Williams’s ordination
(The Evangelical Magazine, p. 511).
The Nonconformist’s Memorial. Edmund Calamy.
Corrected and Methodized by Samuel Palmer. See
Vol. i, 259, for Francis Holcroft; Vol. ii, 300, for
William Haworth, and 305 for Daniel Skingle;
Vol. iii, 148, for Thomas Wright.
Accounts of the miraculous cure of David Wright.
Samuel Palmer (‘Theological and Biblical Magazine,
p. 338; Evangelical Magazine, p. 444).
The History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches
and Meeting Houses in London, etc. Walter
Wilson. See Accounts of John Guyse, 11, 232-241,
Edward Hitchin, iii, 458; Edward Hickman, 1ii,
458-460; James Webb, iii, 460-462; Joseph Pitts,
iv, 269-272; Joseph Hussey, iv, 411-422.
The Life of the Rev. William Gordon, D.D. James
Conder (MS. in Dr. Williams’s Library, Gordon
Square, London).
Account of the settlement of the Rev. Charles
Sloper in the Back Street Meeting (The Evangelical
Magazine, p. 353).
Obituary notice of the Rev. William Williams (The
Evangelical Magazine, p. 266).
Admonitions from the dead considered and un-
proved in a Sermon preached at Hitchin the 21st of
January, 1819, at the interment of the Rev. William
Parry, principal tutor in the Academy for educating
young men for the work of the Ministry at Wymond-
ley, Herts, by William Chaplin of Bishop Stortford.
Copy in Hertford Museum.
A Selection of Hymns from the best authors, includ-
ing a number of originals. William Williams,
Minister of the Gospel.
A collection of portraits of the ministers of
this period, with drawings and photographs of
the old chapel. In the possession of Herbert
H. Minnis.
The Riches of Free Grace. Thomas Oxenham.
This gives an account of the Chapel services at
Trunk’s House Independent Meeting, Hitchin.
(616) 1822-
1824.
(617) 1825.
(618) 1825-
1868.
(619) 1830.
(620) 1834.
(621) 1852.
(622) 1853.
(623) 1855.
(624) 1855.
(625) 1856.
(626) 1856.
(627) 1856.
(628) 1857—
1904.
(629) 186r.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 469
Manuscript Diary of William Wayne, Pastor of
Back Street Meeting, in the possession of Herbert
H. Minnis.
Obituary notice of the Rev. Charles Sloper (The
Evangelical Magazine, p. 103).
The Church Book. Second volume. The Minutes
from 1856-1868 have been repeated in the third
volume.
History of the ancient Town and Borough of Hert-
ford. Lewis Turnor. References to Wm. Haworth
and John Guyse, pp. 382, 400-2.
Account of the Wymondley Academy in the
Congregational Magazine.
The Atoning Lamb, a Scriptural Exhibition and
Enforcement of our Lord’s vicarious death. By the
Rev. W. Grifhths of Back Street Meeting, Hitchin.
An address to the Independent Dissenters worship-
ping in Back Street Meeting and to the friends
in the town and neighbourhood. W. Griffith and
W. Impey.
Notes of the ministry of the Rev. William Williams
amongst the Independents at Hitchin (Noncon-
formist Churches of Hail Weston. Dr. Joseph Rix.
Vol. 111, p. 214. MS. at Dr. Williams’s Library).
Catalogue of the books belonging to the Back Street
Meeting. MS. in the Church safe.
Obituary Notice of the Rev. William Wayne (The
Congregational Year Book, p. 239).
An Historical Account of the Queen Street Congrega-
tional Church, Hitchin; preached as a farewell
sermon upon leaving the old Chapel. Rev. W.
Griffith. This has been copied out in Vol. iii of
the Church Book, pp. 7-39.
The Funeral Sermon preached in memory of the
late Mrs. Griffith of Hitchin, by the Rev. Thomas
Hill.
The Church Book: third volume. Contains, inter
alia, a register of members, with dates of admission,
birth, baptism, marriage and burial.
Testimonial and address to the Rev. W. Griffith.
Original in the possession of Herbert H. Minnis.
470 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(630) 1871-
1881.
(631) 1879.
(632) 1884.
(633) 1890.
(634) 1898-
1927.
(635) 1900.
(636) 1905.
(637) 1906.
(638) 1927.
(639) 1928.
(640) 1639.
(641) 1664.
Minutes of the Deacons’ Meeting. MS. in the
Church safe.
Account of the Rev. R. Nobb’s Recognition Ser-
vices at Queen Street Independent Church (The
Hertfordshire Quarterly, No. 2, pp. 58-60).
Nonconformity in Herts. William Urwick. For
William Haworth, see pp. 174, 216, 537; for Daniel
Skingle, p. 542; for Francis Holcroft, pp. 543-545.
Life of Dr. William Gordon by the Rev. Alexander
Gordon (D.N.B., xxii, 235).
Hitchin Congregational Magazine. Combined since
1925 with the Hitchin Baptist Magazine. Complete
series in the possession of Herbert H. Minnis.
Obituary notice of the Rev. William Griffith (The
Congregational Year Book, p. 185).
A Remarkable Letter of Joseph Hussey (Trans. of
the Cong. Hist. Soc., Vol. 11, pp. 136-8).
An Account of Katharine Chidley (Trans. Cong.
Hist. Soc., Vol. 1, pp. 332-334).
Letters from Halley Stewart to the author upon
certain doubtful points in the history of the Hitchin
Independents.
The History of Welwyn Independent Chapel.
Raymond H. Belton. For references to Hitchin,
Thomas Oxenham and Benjamin Gatward, see
pp. 16-34.
THE QUAKERS (i)
Certificate of Commissaries Court that Joseph Wiggs
and John Clarke would not take off their hats at
Hitchin on May oth (Cal. S.P.D., Vol. 420, No. 123).
A Second Relation from Hertford containing the
unjust proceedings of some called Justices there at
the General Quarter Sessions upon the Tryall of
one and twenty innocent persons called Quakers for
a pretended breach of the late Act. By W.S. See
1. For the sake of brevity the Library of the Society of Friends is here
referred to as LS F , the Journal of the Freends’ Historical Soctety, as J.F.H.S.,
the Friends Quarterly Examiner, as F.Q E., and the Calendar of State Papers
(Domestic) as Cal. S.P.D.
(642) 1664.
(643) 1668—
1720.
(644) 1676.
(645) 1678.
(646) 1678.
(647) 1681—
1929.
(648) 1690.
(649) 1696.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 471
also the first issue A ‘True short impartial Rela-
tion, etc., 1664, and the article by Samuel Graveson
in F.Q.E., 1916, pp. 358-370, on The Hertford
Quaker Trials of 1664.
Information against Francis Field of Hitchin,
Shopkeeper, as a disperser of Quaker books (Cal.
S.P.D., cix, 44; Cal. 1664-5, p. 142).
Extracts relating to the early History of Friends at
Hitchin, taken by Reginald L. Hine from the
Monthly and Quarterly Meetings Books at Hertford,
10 vols. Numbered and filed.
The Testimony of the Hartford Quakers for the
Man Christ Jesus, vindicated from the malicious
slanders, perversions, confusions, impertinences,
and idle Quibling of William Haworth, an In-
dependent Preacher. Richard Thomas and Mary
Stout.
An apology for the true Christian Divinity, etc.
Robert Barclay.
The dissension at Hitchin and Hertford over the
setting up of Women’s Meetings. (See Two letters
from Isaac Penington to Hertford Friends, 22nd
March, 1677-8, and 27th April, 1678, in L.S.F.,
John Penington’s MSS. Collection, iv, Nos. 148,
150; also The Christian Quaker, Pt. v, pp. 83 e¢ seq.;
and L.S.F., A.R.B. Collection, Nos. 199a—208.)
Manuscripts collected by Reginald L. Hine for a
history of Hitchin Friends. Numbered and
filed.
The Quaker Converted, or The Experimental
knowledge of Jesus Christ crucified in opposition
to the principles of the Quakers, declared in a narra-
tive of the conversion of one in Hartfordshire who
was for some years of their faith and principle, with
some things annexed for detection of their errors
and delusions and prevention of the growth thereof.
Likewise an epistle dedicatory by W. Haworth,
Minister of the Gospel.
Account of Thomas Janney’s visit to Hitchin and
his illness at William Turner’s house there (Piety
Promoted, W. & T. Evans, Vol. 1, p. 180).
4°72 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(650) 1703-
1929.
(651) 1704.
(652) 1705-
1717.
(653) 1715.
(654) 1715.
(655) 1726.
(656) 1726—
1778.
(657) 1729-
1748.
(658) 1734-
1929.
(659) 1737-
(660) 1738-
1783.
(661) 1743-
1826.
(662) 1744.
Minute Books of the Quarterly Meeting, first known
as Hertfordshire Quarterly Meeting, then as
Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Q.M., and latterly
as Beds Q.M. Many references to Hitchin
(Hitchin Meeting MSS., 9 vols., now lodged in
the L.S.F., with the exception of the last two
volumes).
A Salutation of Love to Friends and their Children.
Thomas Thompson.
Thomas Thompson’s Accounts of his ministry in
America (Yearly Meeting Minutes, Vol. iii, p. 195;
Vol. v, p. 255).
The Glorious Truth of Universal Grace and
Atonement exalted, etc. Thomas Thompson. A
reprint of 1727 contains an account of this minister’s
last illness and death.
A Farewell Epistle by way of Exhortation to
Friends. By T. T(hompson). On his departure
for America. Written at Hitchin the 22nd of the
2nd month, 1715.
A collection of the Works of William Penn.
Minute Books of Baldock and Royston Monthly
Meeting, 2 vols. MSS. at L.S.F.
A register of the burials of members of Hitchin
Meeting. Deposited with the Registrar-General at
Somerset House, and see 683.
Hitchin Preparative Meeting Books, 8 vols. (Hitchin
Meeting MSS.).
Letter of Isaac Sharples to Susannah Crowdson
(L.S.F. Portf. 14, p. 91).
Rebecca Butterfield’s diary of Friends visiting
Jordans (MS. at L.S.F.). Many references to
Hitchin Friends. See Index made by the late
Joseph J. Green.
The Commonplace Book of Sarah Crafton, née Bell
(MSS. of Joseph J. Green of Hastings, now at
L.S.F.). Refers to Mercy Ransom, Mercy Exton
and other Hitchin Friends.
The Way to the Sabbath of Rest. Thomas Bromley.
The L.S.F. copy has this note in the writing of
Samuel Spavold on the fly-leaf: ‘I give this book to
(663) 1745
ef seq.
(664) 1745-
1788.
(665) 1745.
(666) 1747.
(667) 1749.
(668) 1751.
(669) 1753.
(670) 1754.
(671) 1754.
(672) 1756.
(673) 1757-
1785.
(674) 1757-
1793.
(675) 1758-
1879.
(676) 1758.
(677) 1760.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 473
my beloved wife Phoebe Spavold. Witness my
hand, Samuel Spavold, 8th mo. rsth, 1759.’
Mercy Bell’s Commonplace Book (Joseph J. Green
MSS., L.S.F.).
A bundle of Meeting House Accounts and memo-
randa of goods taken by distraint for tythes and sub-
stitutes for Militia Service (Hitchin Meeting MSS.).
The Journal of James Dickenson. Ref. to Hitchin
and Hertford Meetings, p. 73.
The Journal of Thomas Story. Hitchin references,
pp- 464, 578, 637, 685, 687, 691, 731, 751. There
is at L.S.F. a MS. Index made by the late Joseph J.
Green.
Testimony given forth at Salterforth by Samuel
Spavold (Impey MSS., Box 1, p. 63, L.S.F.).
Journal of the life of Thomas Chalkley, 2nd edition.
See pp. 63, 64, 280.
Collection of the Sufferings of the People called
Quakers for the Testimony of a good Conscience.
Joseph Besse. Hitchin refs., Vol. 1, pp. 240-254.
Vision of Samuel Spavold (Portf. xix, p. 82, L.S.F.).
A summary account of an Extraordinary visit to
this Metropolis in the year 1753 by the Ministry of
Ann Mercy Bell. J.P.
An account of the Life, Travels and Christian
Experiences of Samuel Bownas, pp. 51 and 196.
The diary of Richard Lindley of Darlington
(Robson MSS., 50, 50a, 506, L.S.F.). References
to Samuel Spavold in the years 1759 (3), 1760,
1777 (2), 1780 (2); sixteen references to Isaac
Sharples and three to Isaac Gray.
Account of Sufferings: Baldock, Royston, Ashwell
and Hitchin (Hitchin Meeting MSS.).
Minute Books of the Select Quarterly Meeting of
Ministers and Elders at Hitchin and Hertford
(Hitchin MSS., L.S.F.).
Letter of Isaac Gray of Hitchin, Minister, ‘ to the
Fresh Visited of the Lord in Essex’ (Reynolds
MSS. 333, Box 1, L.S.F.).
A Collection of Testimonies concerning Quakers.
Mary Ransom, p. 206.
474 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(678) 1761-
1821.
(679) 1761-
1929.
(680) 1764.
(681) 1771.
(682) 1775.
(683) 1776-
1837.
(684) 1777.
(685) 1777.
(686) 1777-
1830.
(687) 1778-
1781.
(688) 1779.
(689) 1780.
The Records and Recollections of James Jenkins
(MS. at L.S.F. See Index under Isaac Sharples,
Thomas Shillitoe, Sarah Crawley and Samuel
Spavold).
Monthly Meeting Books of Hitchin Meeting held
with those of Royston, Ashwell and Baldock, 8 vols.
(Hitchin Meeting MSS.).
Two letters from Samuel Spavold of Hitchin to
Samuel Day (Joseph J. Green MSS., Portf. 8,
p. 113, L.S.F.).
Epistles to Yearly Meeting and to Friends in
Amsterdam, by Isaac Sharples of Hitchin, William
Fry, John Kendall, James Backhouse and John
Elliot. Refers at large to their travels in the ministry
through Holland (Richard Lindley of Darlington
MSS., No. 50, L.S.F.).
Letter from Isaac Sharples to Richard Chester,
concerning the decease of Rachel Wilson (Portf. 34,
No. 52, L.S.F.).
Original registers of birth, marriage and burial of
Hitchin Monthly Meeting and Bedfordshire and
Hertfordshire Quarterly Meeting deposited at
Somerset House. (See the Index at L.S.F.)
Epistle to Bedfordshire Quarterly Meeting, by
Isaac Sharples, Edmund Gurney, John Kendall,
Richard Chester and Abraham Gray (MS. in the
possession of Francis Ransom).
Leaves from the Past: the diary of John Allen,
edited by Clement Young Sturge (1905), see
pp. 21, 37> 40.
Business, Household and Private Account Books of
William Lucas. 3 vols. (MSS. in the possession of
Stephen Lucas).
Letters from Isaac Sharples to his sister Ann
Young of Bristol (John Thompson MSS., L.S.F.,
Nos. 478, 479, 481, 483).
Epistle to Friends in Ireland. Samuel Spavold and
James Jenkins.
Address to the Magistrates of Hitchin on considering
the unprecedented proceedings in this town by way
of rejoicing on the news of the taking of Charles-
(690) 1780.
(691) 1783-
1799.
(692) 1785-
1879.
(693) 1785.
(694) 1788-
1832.
(695) 1793-
1864.
(696) 1795.
(697) 1796.
(698) 1797-
1803.
(699) 1797.
(700) 1798.
(701) 1799.
(702) 1799-
1842.
(703) 1802.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 475
town in South Carolina. A well-wisher (Broadsheet
in the Thompson Collection at Hitchin, Vol. i,
Pp. 43).
Letter of Isaac Sharples to Adey Bellamy (L.S.F.,
Gibson MSS., Vol. 11, p. 97).
Letters from Sarah Crawley to Samuel Spavold, to
Friends of Hitchin Monthly Meeting and to
Friends of Beds and Herts Quarterly Meeting
(L.S.F., John Thompson MSS., 74-77).
Minute Books of Hitchin Women Friends’ Meeting
(Hitchin MSS., L.S.F.).
A short narrative of our dear and worthy friend
Isaac Sharples, late of Hitchin, to which is added
some of his solid and weighty expressions a little
before his end.
Minute Books of Hitchin Select Meeting (Hitchin
Meeting MSS.).
Particulars of Distraints for Tithes and Church
Rates (Hitchin Meeting MSS.).
Henry Wormall’s diary. Refs. to Joshua and
Elizabeth Wheeler of Hitchin, pp. 25, 26, 69 (MS.
at L.S.F., Box K).
An Epistle to the Quarterly Meeting of Ministers
and Elders to be held at Hitchin. William Lucas,
Elizabeth Wheeler, Joshua Wheeler and John Miller
(Herts and Beds Q.M. Records at L.S.F., No. 12).
The Diary of Susanna Day. Contains references to
Mercy Ransom and other Hitchin Friends (Joseph J.
Green MSS., L.S.F.).
A caution and warning to the Inhabitants of Great
Britain, but more especially to her Rulers, and all
in Power. Thomas Shillitoe.
John Grubb’s Diary. References to Sarah Crawley,
Mercy Ransom, Rudd Wheeler, Isaac Sharples (The
British Friend, 1904, pp. 140, 151, 222).
A Journal of the Life, Travels and Gospel labours
of Daniel Stanton. Ref. to Samuel Spavold, p. 83.
Hitchin Monthly Meeting of Women Friends,
2 vols. (Hitchin Meeting House MSS.).
Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the
Yearly Meeting of Friends, 2nd edition.
176 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(704) 1806.
(705) 1807.
(706) 1808.
(707) 1809.
(708) 1811.
(7o9) 1812-
1825.
(710) 1812-
1838.
(711) 1812-
1870.
(712) 1813-
1929.
(713) 1816.
(714) 1816.
(715) 1818.
A letter on Tithes, copied from a manuscript found
among the papers of the late Isaac Sharples (John
Thompson MSS., No. 548, L.S.F.).
Account of the death of Isaac Gray of Hitchin
while travelling in the ministry in Ireland (Memoirs
of Sarah Stephenson, p. 75).
Elizabeth Rowntree’s Memorandum Book. Refs.
to Mercy Ransom, Elizabeth Wheeler, Oswald
Foster, p. 6 (MS. at L.S.F., Box T).
The choosing of Phoebe Allen as clerk and Ann
Lucas as her assistant to the Yearly Meeting of
Women Friends (MS. at L.S.F., Portf. 17, 71).
A diary of some religious exercises and experiences
of Samuel Scott, late of Hartford. No index, but
for Hitchin and its ministers see pp. 4, 30, 33, 52, 73>
102, 105, 140, 143, 150, 160, 173, 199, 2II, 213, 219.
Letters written to William Lucas of Hitchin (John
Thompson MSS., Nos. 238, 290, 401, 402).
List of members of Hitchin Monthly Meeting
(MS. in L.S.F.).
Letters (x) from William and Ann Lucas to their
children; (2) from Samuel Lucas to his first wife
Matilda Holmes; (3) from Samuel Lucas to his
children Samuel, Ann, Matilda, Ralph and Edwin;
(4) from Samuel Lucas to Elizabeth Manser, his
second wife (MSS. in the possession of Stephen
Lucas).
Annual Monitor. And see the annotated list of
sixty-eight Hitchin Friends, extracted by the late
Joseph J. Green from the Index published by him
in 1894 (MS. in the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Letter from Thomas Shillitoe to Thomas Thompson,
giving an account of his daughter Mary’s death
(MS. at L.S.F., Portf. 6, 153).
Some remarks by way of diary written by Mercy
Ransom during a long confinement by lameness.
Edited by her niece Susannah Day. The diary
covers the period from 1802-1810.
History of the Yearly Meeting of 1818. Refs. to
Thomas Shillitoe, pp. 24, 31-34 (MS. at L.S.F.,
Box D).
(716) 1819.
(717) 1820.
(718) 1820-
1863.
(719) 1821.
(720) 1821.
(721) 1823.
(722) 1824.
(723) 1824.
(724) 1826.
(725) 1826.
(726) 1828.
(727) 1829.
(728) 1830.
(729) 1830-
1860.
(730) 1831.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 477
Some expressions of Joseph Ransom, who died 8th
of 11th month, 1819, aged 35 years (L.S.F., Robson
MSS., No. 79).
An Address to Friends in Great Britain and Ireland.
Thomas Shillitoe.
Minutes and miscellaneous papers of Hitchin Peace
Society (MSS. in the Friends Meeting House at
Hitchin).
Thomas Shillitoe in Holland. Letters of introduc-
tion (MSS. at L.S.F., Portf. 35, ff. 3, 153, 154).
Letters from John Bevan to Samuel Allen of
Hitchin, relating to the Peace Society (MSS. in the
possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Letter from John Thompson to Edward Thompson
relating to Thomas Shillitoe (MS. in the possession
of Mary Thompson).
Lines on Friend ‘Thomas Shillitoe’s long persevering
abstinence. John Morgan (MS. in the Thompson
Collection at Hitchin, Vol. i, p. 47).
Letter from John Barclay to William Lucas of
Hitchin, asking for local information with a view to
a further volume of Piety Promoted (L.S.F., John
Thompson MSS., 23).
Thomas Shillitoe in America (MS. at L.S.F.,
Portf. 29, 58).
Testimony concerning Elizabeth ‘Townsend (L.S.F.,
Robson MSS., Testimonies 11, p. 210).
Letters from William Procter concerning the
Hicksite separation. Refs. to Thomas Shillitoe
passim (MSS. at L.S.F., Box O).
Memoirs of Ruth Follows. Samuel Stansfield.
Refs. to Samuel Spavold, pp. 28, 44.
A Catalogue of Books belonging to Hitchin Monthly
Meeting. Supplements were issued in 1886 and
1907.
Letters written by several correspondents to John
Thompson, of Hitchin (L.S.F., John Thompson
MSS., Nos. 67, 98, 99, 100, 235, 241, 242, 270, 271,
359, 542). See also 953a.
Letter of Thomas Shillitoe to Thomas Thompson
(L.S.F., Gibson MSS., Vol. ii, p. 105).
478
(731) 1831.
(732) 1832.
(733) 1832.
(734) 1834-
1839.
(735) 1835.
(736) 1836.
(737) 1836.
(738) 1836.
(739) 1836.
(740) 1836-
1850.
(741) 1838.
(742) 1838.
(743) 1839.
(744) 1840.
(745) 1840.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
An affectionate Address to all professing Christians.
Thomas Shillitoe.
An Affectionate Address to the King and his
Government. ‘Thomas Shillitoe.
Sermons preached by members of the Society of
Friends. ,Two sermons by Thomas Shillitoe,
pp. 110-120.
Friends Miscellany. John and Isaac Comly. Refs.
to Samuel Spavold, v, 306; ix, 124; xii, 249.
Testimony concerning Rebecca Byrd.
Quakerism Examined. John Wilkinson.
Thomas Shillitoe, pp. 3776-380, 411-416.
Account of the death of ‘Thomas Shillitoe (MS. at
L.S.F, Portf. 15, 89).
Testimony concerning Sarah Lamley (L.S-F.,
Robson MSS., Testimonies, iii, pp. 244-248).
Portrait of Thomas Shillitoe, drawn on zinc from a
sketch of J. C. Canton (L.S.F., Gibson MSS.,
vi, 99).
The Friends’ Library. Walliam and Thomas Evans.
Vol. iii, Thomas Shillitoe; Vol. xiii, Isaac Sharples.
Account of the Ministry of ‘Thomas Shillitoe in
Norway (MS. at L.S.F., Portf. 14, p. 25).
Letter by John Barclay of Stoke Newington to
Joseph Grubb of Clonmel, Ireland, concerning the
preparation of Thomas Shillitoe’s Journal for
the press and the risk of its being censored by the
Morning Meeting (MS. in the possession of
the late J. Ernest Grubb of Carrick-on-Suir).
Journal of the Life, Labours and Travels of Thomas
Shillitoe in the service of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
N.B.—The copy in the possession of Reginald L.
Hine formerly belonged to Joseph Smith, author
of A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends’ Books, and
has some notes by him.
Memoirs of the Life and Religious Labours of
Henry Hull (The Friends’ Library, Vol. iv,
PP. 233-325).
Pedigree of the allied Quaker Families of Ransom,
Burr, Wheeler, Rudd, Gray, Sharples, Brown, Exton,
Tuke, Seebohm, Crafton, Bell, Bland, Lawndy,
Refs. to
(746) 1840
circa.
(747) 1840.
(748) 1840-
1870.
(749) 1841-
1847.
(750) 1845.
(751) 1844-
1845.
(752) 1847.
(753) 1847.
(754) 1849.
(755) 1850.
(756) 1851.
(757) 1851.
(758) 1851.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 479
Pinney and Marsh (MSS. in the possession of
Francis Ransom).
Plan of the graves, plot by plot, with names and
ages of those Friends who were buried in the first
burial-ground of Hitchin Friends at Ippolyts (MS.
in the possession of Francis Ransom of Hitchin).
Two Addresses to the Prisoners in the House of
Correction at Spandau in Prussia, delivered by
Thomas Shillitoe.
An album of silhouettes made by John Thompson
of Hitchin and now in the custody of Miss ‘Thomp-
son. Amongst those represented are Benjamin
Tatham, Oswald Foster, John and Mary Thompson,
William and Ann Lucas, Phoebe Spavold, Lindley
Murray, Rachel, Joseph and Charles Lucas, and
Joshua Sharples.
Letters from Samuel Allen of Hitchin to John
Candler and Ann Knight (MSS. at L.S.F., Portf.
23, pp. 28, 29).
Memorials of deceased members of the Society
of Friends. Susanna Corder. Account of ‘Thomas
Shillitoe, pp. 314-322.
The Boys’ Leisure Hours. A Monthly Miscellany.
Benjamin Abbott.
Prospectus of the School for the Sons of Friends,
Hitchin, Herts, conducted by Benjamin Abbott.
A Visit to Connaught in the Autumn of 1847. A
Letter addressed to the Central Relief Committee
of the Society of Friends, Dublin, by James Hack
Tuke.
A Short Account of William Moore of Hitchin.
Mary Exton.
Sketches of Friends. Refs. to Ann Ransom, p. 53,
and Rudd Wheeler, p. 27 (L.S.F., Robson MSS.,
N.S. 3).
A Memorial of Benjamin Collins of Hitchin.
Mary Exton (L.S.F., John Thomspon MSS., go).
Diary of a Hitchin Elder. MS. in the possession of
Francis Ransom.
An Account of Thomas Shillitoe (Select Miscellanies.
Wilson Armistead, Vol. iv, pp. 122-142).
480 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(759) 1853.
(760) 1854.
(761) 1854.
(762) 1854.
(763) 1855-
1856.
(764) 1857.
(765) 1858.
(766) 1860—
1929.
(767) 1860.
(768) 1860.
(769) 1861.
(770) 1864.
The Educational Institutions of the United States,
their character and organisation: A Paper read at
the Annual Meeting of the Friends’ Educational
Society. James Hack Tuke.
Youthful Pilgrims, or Memorials of Young Persons
of the Society of Friends. Esther Seebohm.
An Account of Thomas Shillitoe (Leisure Hour,
Pp. 200).
Piety Promoted, by W. and T. Evans. Hitchin
refs.: William Turner, i, 281-282; Thomas Thomp-
son, iii, 62-64; Isaac Sharples, iii, 129-135; Samuel
Spavold, iii, 194-196; Sarah Crawley, ili, 288-290;
Mary Bass, ili, 290-293; Joshua Wheeler, iii,
310-314; Mercy Ransom, iv, 26—29; Joseph Ransom,
iv, 149-151; Elizabeth Wheeler, iv, 279-283.
The Burges Journal. Refs. to William, Jane, Maria,
and Alfred Ransom, passim (MS. at L.S.F.,Box D).
Report of the Committee appointed by the Quarterly
Meeting of Beds and Herts upon the spiritual
welfare of the younger Friends. Signed on behalf
of the Committee by Samuel Lucas (L.S.F.,
Hitchin MSS.).
Journal and Letters. Hannah Chapman Backhouse.
Refs. to Thomas Shillitoe, pp. 193, 217.
Minute Books of Hitchin Adult School. These
are in several hands. The volume for 1860-1867 is
missing. ‘T’he two vols. from 1867-1884 are in
Alfred Latchmore’s keeping. ‘Those from 1884 to
1906 are missing. ‘The current Minute Book from
1906 onwards is held by the Secretary, Alice Mary
Harris.
Memoirs of the Life and Gospel Labours of Stephen
Grellet. Edited by Benjamin Seebohm.
Memoirs of Samuel Tuke. See Index under
Hitchin, Lucas, Shillitoe.
To the Inhabitants of Ashv.<!1: An Address by John
Thompson. Printed in William White’s pamphlet,
The Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers.
Letter from John Thompson of Hitchin concerning
his collection of Quakeriana (MS. at L.S.F., Portf.
27, 1a).
(771) 1864.
(772) 1866.
(773) 1866.
(774) 1866.
(775) 1866—
1868.
(776) 1867.
(777) 1867.
(778) 1867.
(779) 1869.
(780) 1870.
(781) 1870.
(782) 1870.
VOL. IT.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 481
Circular to Friends of the Quarterly Meeting.
Samuel Lucas, James Hack Tuke and others.
An account of Thomas Shillitoe. By ‘ Colin’ (The
British Friend, pp. 251-252).
The Diary of Mary Sewell (MS. in the possession of
Reginald L. Hine).
On the Sufferings of Christ for our Sake; with a
memorial of Esther Seebohm.
The Diary of Elizabeth Lucas, née Manser (MS. in
the possession of Miss Matilda Lucas).
Group photographs of the Hitchin Adult School
Classes (Thompson Collection at Hitchin: Vol. i—
Class of Joseph Sewell, p. 128; William Ransom,
p. 128; Frederic Seebohm, p. 177; Rev. W. Thomp-
son and Miss M. Newton, p. 182; Lucy Sewell,
p. 189; and Vol. ii—Catharine Thompson, p. 75;
Mary Thompson, p. 107; Ann Lucas, p. 107).
Thomas Shillitoe, the Quaker Missionary and
Temperance Pioneer. William ‘Tallack.
A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends’ Books. Joseph
Smith. See Vol. 1, p. 326, Isaac Brown; p. 537,
Francis Holcroft; Vol. ii, p. 136, Samuel Lucas;
p- 470, Jane Ransom; p. 471, Mary Ransom and
Mercy Ransom; p. 554, Esther and Frederic
Seebohm; p. 571, Thomas Shillitoe; p. 617, Samuel
Spavold; p. 736, John Thompson; p. 738, Thomas
Thompson; p. 831, James Hack Tuke. In the
Supplement to the above, issued in 1893, see p. 2,
Benjamin Abbott; p. 141, Bedfordshire Quarterly
Meeting; p. 326, John Thompson; p. 343, James
Hack Tuke.
Family Memorials. Isabella Harris. Refs. to Thomas
Shillitoe, pp. 84, 85.
Isaac Brown and his Hitchin Scholars. Account of
the Proceedings and Speeches made at Hitchin on
the occasion of the ‘Testimonial to Isaac Brown.
Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of Members
of the Religious Society of Friends. Ref. to
Thomas Shillitoe, p. 237.
List of Members of the Society of Friends belonging
to Bedfordshire Quarterly Meeting, which com-
HH
482
(783) 1871.
(784) 1877.
(785) 1873.
(786) 1873.
(787) 1875.
(788) 1875.
(789) 1879.
(790) 1880.
(791) 1883.
(792) 1883.
(793) 1885-
1goo.
(794) 1886.
(795) 1886.
(796) 1888.
(797) 1888.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
prises the Monthly Meetings of Hertford and
Hitchin, Luton and Leighton Buzzard, and North-
ampton and Wellingborough.
A Visit in Paris in the Spring of 1871 on behalf of
the War Victims Fund of the Society of Friends.
Being a Lecture delivered at the Town Hall,
Hitchin, April 4th. James Hack Tuke.
Account of John ‘Thompson, Hertfordshire Express,
August 4th.
The Report of the Committee of Men and Women
Friends appointed by Bedfordshire Quarterly Meet-
ing to visit the Monthly and Particular Meetings
within its borders. Dated ‘ Hitchin, 1st month
rsth, 1873.’ Alfred and Lucy Ransom served on
the Committee.
Private Memoirs of Benjamin and Esther Seebohm.
Edited by their sons.
Benjamin Seebohm. Frances Anne Budge.
After Darkness, Light: A Memoir of William Miller
Dollin. Jane Ransom.
Letters and Memoranda of Mary M. Shepherd.
Ref. to Thomas Shillitoe, p. 128.
Irish Distress and 1ts Remedies. James Hack Tuke.
Letter from Lawson Thompson to Joseph J. Green
concerning his father’s collections of Quakeriana
(MS. at L.S.F., Portf. A, 156).
A Plea for Total Abstinence.
Bancroft, Hitchin.
Dictionary of National Boigraphy. See Notices of
Samuel Lucas, 34, 242; Thomas Shillitoe, 52, 108;
James Hack Tuke, 57, 297.
Letters and Correspondence of William Hodgson.
Refs. to Thomas Shillitoe, pp. 84 and 177.
Memoir of Christopher Healy. Ref. to Thomas
Shillitoe, p. 119.
Memoirs of Nicholas Naftel.
Shillitoe, pp. 43, 69, 79, 80, 105.
Biographical Catalogue of the Lives of Friends,
etc. See references to Samuel Lucas, pp. 440-443;
Isaac Sharples, pp. 610-614; Thomas Shillitoe,
pp. 616-629.
Jane Ransom of
Refs. to Thomas
(798) 1889.
(799) 1890.
(800) 1890.
(801) 1891.
(802) 1891.
(803) 1892.
(803a) 1892.
circa.
(804) 1892.
(805) 1893.
(806) 1894-
1896.
(807) 1896.
(808) 1896.
(809) 1897.
(810) 1899.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 483
An Account of the Men’s and Women’s Meetings
at Hitchin, Baldock and Royston. Isaac Sharp
(MS. at L.S.F., Box D).
William Dawson: A Memoir. N.B.—The L.S.F.
copy has some MS. notes in it from information
supplied by Isaac Sharp.
The Art Training of Birket Foster at Hitchin (Birket
Foster, his life and work. Marcus B. Huish. The
Art Annual for 1890, p. 3).
Benjamin Seebohm (Friends of Half a Century,
edited by W. Robinson, pp. 277-282).
Thomas Richardson on Thomas Shillitoe, F.Q.E.,
P- 524.
Letter, dated from Highbury House, Hitchin, from
Benjamin Seebohm, Junior, to Joseph J. Green,
concerning the Editorship of the Annual Monitor
by Benjamin Seebohm and Joseph S. Sewell, both
of Hitchin (L.S.F., Portf. B, 139).
Recollections of my Childhood. Phoebe Glaisyer
(MS. in the possession of Eleanor Glaisyer. Copy
of all Hitchin entries taken by Reginald L. Hine).
Thomas’ Shillitoe, Shoemaker and Minister.
Frances Anne Budge.
Recollections of ‘Tottenham Friends. Theodore
Compton. Refs. to Thomas Shillitoe, pp. 45,
55, 56.
Quakeriana. See MS. Index at L.S.F. under
Ransom, Seebohm, Shillitoe.
Faithful unto Death. A story of the Missionary life
in Madagascar of William and Lucy S. Johnson.
See Index under Beck, Dawson, Godlee, Gosmore,
Grace, Hitchin, Latchmore, Linney, Seebohm,
Sewell, Wilson.
Benjamin Seebohm as Interpreter and Preacher.
J. L. (The Friend, pp. 763-765).
Family Fragments. William Beck. Passzm, but
see more especially Chapter XIV, pp. 73-77.
N.B.—Only one edition is illustrated.
James Hack Tuke: A Memoir. The Right Hon. Sir
Edward Fry. See Index under Hitchin. N.B.— There
are several other references not indexed.
484
(8x1) 1900.
(812) r1g00.
(813) 1901.
(814) Igor.
(815) 1902.
(816) 1903-
1929.
(817) 1903.
(818) 1905.
(819) 1905.
(820) 1905.
(821) 1906.
(822) 1907.
(823) 1907.
(824) 1907.
(825) 1908.
(826) 1908.
(827) 1908.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Samuel Tuke: His Life, Work and Thoughts.
Charles Tylor. Hitchin refs. 28, 79, 246.
Poems. Elizabeth S. Lucas. N.B.—A number of
these first appeared in F.Q.E.
Twelve Lessons by Six Members of Adult Schools.
Contributions by Esther and Hilda Seebohm.
Souvenir of Addresses to the Throne. Edited by
Joseph J. Green. Ref. to ‘Thomas Shillitoe, p. 85.
Letter of Stephen R. Smith to Joseph J. Green.
Refs. to Benjamin, Esther and Frederic Seebohm
(L.S.F., Portf. 37, 79).
Journal of the Friends’ Historical Society.
progress.
History of the Ancient Family of Marsh, circa
1326-1903 (L.S.F., Joseph J. Green MSS. Refs.
to Samuel Spavold, pp. 498-499, and Maria
Ransom, p. 690).
Life and Ancestry of Warner Mifflin.
Justice. Ref. to Samuel Spavold, p. 135.
Howard Letters and Memoirs. William Tallack.
Ref. to Thomas Shillitoe, p. 6.
Thomas Shillitoe. William Robinson.
The Shoemaker of Tottenham. G. Holden Pike
(The British Workman and Home Monthly,
January, p. 7).
In
Hilda
A Message from Hitchin Monthly Meeting.
Theodore Ransom, Clerk.
Hitchin: Its Poet and other Friends. William
Tallack (F.Q.E., Tenth month, Vol. clxiv, pp. 523-
535)-
The Diaries of Edward Pease.
E. Pease.
Thomas Shillitoe and the Free City of Hamburg.
Maurice Gregory (L.S.F., Typescript attached to
Shillitoe’s address in German to the Magistrates
of Hamburg).
List of the Documents in the Iron Safe at Hitchin.
MS. in L.S.F. N.B—Most of these documents are
now deposited at Friends House. The modern
Minute Books only are left at Hitchin.
Notes of Sunday Talks with Children. These were
Edited by Sir Alfred
(828) x910.
(829) 1911.
(830) 1912-
1913.
(831) 1912.
(832) 1913.
(833) 1913.
(834) 1913.
(835) 1913.
(836) 1914.
(836a) 1914.
(837) 1914.
(838) 1914.
(839) 1914.
(840) 1914.
(841) IgQI5.
(842) 1915.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 485
prepared by Freda Seebohm and Edith Sheppard
for their class of Friends’ children at Hitchin.
The Life and Labours of Elias Hicks. See Index
under Thomas Shillitoe.
The Journal of George Fox. Edited from the
MSS. by Dr. Norman Penney, F.S.A. Two vols.
Known as the Cambridge Edition.
Obituary Notices of Frederic Seebohm (By Isaac
Sharp, Bootham, Vol. vi, 1-10; Joseph Wicksteed,
F.Q.E., 1912, pp. 267-284; Annual Monitor, 1913,
pp. 120-131; M.C.A., The Friend, 1912, pp. 117-
118; The British Friend, 1912, pp. 54-55).
The Beginnings of Quakerism. William C. Braith-
waite.
A Book Guide for Teachers. Frederic Taylor.
A Short Account of ‘Thomas Thompson the
Younger of Hitchin (J.F.H.S., x, 124).
Extracts from State Papers relating to Friends,
1654-1672. Edited by Dr. Norman Penney. See
PP- 52, 71, 75, 228.
Social Service; its place in the Society of Friends.
Joshua Rowntree. Ref. to Thomas _ Shillitoe,
p- 62.
George IV and Thomas Shillitoe. Francis C.
Clayton (J.F.H.S., xi, pp. 195-200). And see the
supplementary article on Standing before Kings
(J.F.H.S., xiii, pp. 145-154).
In My Youth: From the Posthumous Papers of
Robert Dudley. Bobbs Merril. See refs. to
Seebohm.
Benjamin Seebohm. Frances Tatum Rhoads
(Quaker Biographies, Vol. v, pp. 77-95).
The Temperance Testimony of Thomas Shillitoe
(Christian Life, February 14th).
Quaker Biographies. See Index under Benjamin
Seebohm and Thomas Shillitoe.
Obituary Notice of William Ransom (The Friend,
PP. 941-942).
Joseph J. Green: Collection of Family MSS. and
Portraits. See Index under Ransom and Shillitoe.
Mercy Ransom, née Bell (1728-1811), of London,
486 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(843) 1916.
(844) 1916.
(845) 1916.
(846) 1916.
(847) 1918.
(848) 1919.
(849) 1919.
(850) 1919.
(851) 1919.
(852) 1921.
(853) 1921.
(854) 1922.
(855) 1924.
Croydon and Hitchin. Joseph J. Green (J.F.HS.,
Vol. xii, No. 1, pp. 9-16).
John Bright and Benjamin Seebohm (Glowing Facts
and Personalities. Edward Smith, p. 19).
Letter from Edwin Ransom (dated 1oth of 1st
month) to Joseph J. Green concerning Mercy
Ransom (MS. at L.S.F., Portf. B, 55).
The Hertford Quaker Trials of 1664. Samuel
Graveson (F.Q.E., pp. 358-370).
Friends Beyond Seas. Henry T. Hodgkin. See
Index for accounts of Joseph S. Sewell, Lucy and
William Johnson, James Hack Tuke, Isaac Brown,
Watson Grace, Arthur Latchmore, Charles Linney,
Alfred Ransom, William Ransom, Dr. William
Wilson, William Beck, Thomas Shillitoe.
Letter from Mary Thompson to Dr. Norman
Penney concerning the painting of the Gracechurch
Meeting House (MS. at L.S.F.).
Notes on the Early History of Ohio Yearly Meeting.
Ref. to Thomas Shillitoe, p. 36.
London Yearly Meeting during 250 years. See
Index under Phoebe Allen, Samuel Allen, Ann
Lucas, Samuel Lucas, Mercy Ransom, Esther
Seebohm, Thomas Shillitoe, Samuel Spavold.
Account of those Hitchin Friends who served as
Clerks to the Women’s Yearly Meeting. Joseph J.
Green (MS. in the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
The Second Period of Quakerism. Whlliam C.
Braithwaite. See Index under Hitchin and Hert-
ford.
The Seebohm Family of Bradford, York and
Hitchin. William Cudworth.
The Later Periods of Quakerism. Rufus M.
Jones. Two vols.
The Journal and Essays of John Woolman. Amelia
Mott Gummere. See Index under Thomas Shillitoe
and Samuel Spavold.
Licence to Reginald L. Hine to examine the docu-
ments at Hitchin Friends Meeting House with
conditions as to his use of extracts therefrom
(Hitchin Preparative Meeting, 31st 7th mo.).
(856) 1924.
(857) 1925.
(858) 1925.
(859) 1925.
(860) 1925-
1926.
(861) 1926.
(862) 1926.
(863) 1926.
(864) 1927.
(865) 1927.
(866) 1928.
N.B.—In
BIBLIOGRAPHY 487
The Journal of George Fox. A revised text pre-
pared and edited by Dr. Norman Penney, F.S.A.
Particulars of the Life of ‘Thomas Shillitoe by two
of his descendants, Dr. Arthur Shillitoe, of
Salcombe, and Mary S. Whiting of Leeds (MSS.
in the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Christian Practice, being the Second Part of
Christian Discipline of the Religious Society of
Friends in Great Britain.
Notes on the Families of Sharples, Exton and
Ransom, and the Formation of the Hitchin Bank.
Edwin Ransom (MS. in the custody of the compiler’s
family ; typed copy in that of Reginald L. Hine).
The Short Journal and Itinerary Journals of George
Fox. Edited by Dr. Norman Penney, F.S.A.
New Continents. Written for the Friends’ Foreign
Mission Association by Richenda Payne.
Pedigree of the Lucas Family of Hitchin as proved
at the College of Heralds, with Short Biographical
Notes by Archibald William Tindall Lucas (MS. in
the Possession of William Tindall Lucas of ‘The
Hall, Welwyn).
The Society of Friends in Bradford. H. R.
Hodgson. Refs. to Benjamin and Frederic Seebohm,
Esther Wheeler and Stephen Grellet, pp. 41-47.
The Quakers: Their Story and Message. A. Neave
Brayshaw. Second Edition. See Index under
Thomas Shillitoe and Joseph S. Sewell.
Quakers in Ireland. Isabel Grubb. Refs. to
Shillitoe, pp. 122, 123, 138.
Samuel Lucas (1805-1870): His Life and Art-Work.
Reginald L. Hine. See particularly the bubliog-
raphy on pp. 48-50.
the Card Index at L.S.F. there are hundreds of
minor entries relating to Hitchin Meeting and its leading Ministers.
(867) 1531.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES
Grant of a pension to Edmond Moody (Privy Purse
Expenses of King Henry VIII, by Sir Nicholas H.
Nicholas, p. 164).
488
(868) 1742-
1750.
(869) 1795-
1800.
(870) 1809.
(871) 1810—-
1815.
(872) 1812.
(873) 1826.
(874) 1827.
(875) 1832-
1839.
(876) 1833.
(877) 1839.
(878) 1859-
1860.
(879) 1868.
(380) 1869.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Correspondence between Dr. Evetts and Dr.
Ducarel. See Nichols’ Illustrations of the Literary
History of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. i111, pp.
584-9.
The Book of the Welwyn Club, meeting at the
Swan. About a dozen Hitchin members are
named, with accounts of bets, dinners, festivities
(MS. in the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Particulars of an Excursion made by John Ransom,
George Smith and Joshua Ransom principally on
foot through Derbyshire and North Wales in the
ninth month, 1809 (MS. in the possession of
Francis Ransom).
Accounts of Harvest Home Suppers. The Day
Book of John Ransom (MS. in the possession of
C. Loftus Barham. Extracts taken by him are in
the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
An Excursion into Staffordshire performed by
Edward Perks, Isaac Newton and William Stevens
of Hitchin (MS. in the possession of James Parker).
May Day at Hitchin in Hertfordshire (William
Hone’s Everyday Book, Vol. i, pp. 566-7).
May Day at Hitchin. Herts Mercury, May sth.
Hunting Diary of Frederick Peter Delmé-Radcliffe.
Illustrated by the Rev. Charles Delmé-Radcliffe
(MS. at Hitchin Priory).
The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England.
Joseph Strutt. Ed. by William Hone. Ref. to
Henry VIII’s accident at Hitchin, p. 32.
The Noble Science, a few general ideas on Fox
Hunting for the Use of the Rising Generation of
Sportsmen, and more especially those of the
Hertfordshire Hunt Club. F. P. Delmé-Radcliffe.
Minute Book of the Establishment of the Hitchin
Swimming Bath in the possession of F. R. Shillitoe.
Acrostics by the Hitchin Acrostic Club. The key
is separately published.
From Hitchin to Yarmouth in the Wanderer and
Ruby Canoes. Anon (The authors of this river
Qdyssey were Messrs. F. Shillitoe and Willam
Th.
(881) 1870—
1898.
(882) 1875-
1929.
(883) 1890.
(884) 1894.
(885) 1904.
(886) 1911.
(887) 1918.
(888) 1922.
(889) 1265—
1477-
(890) 12738-
1287.
(891) 1324-
1428.
(892) 1636—
1637.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 489
Two books of paper cuttings collected by W. R.
and C. Loftus Barham the Elder, relating to cricket
matches in Hitchin between these dates.
Minute Books and Treasurer’s Account Books of
the Hitchin Cricket Club in the possession of F. R.
Shillitoe.
The King’s Book of Sports. L.A. Govett.
Hunting in Herts and Beds: Notes from a Diary.
William Lucas. Accounts of memorable runs
with Baron Rothschild’s Staghounds, Lord Dacre’s
Hounds, Mr. Leigh’s Hounds, The Puckeridge and
the Hertfordshire Hounds from 1854 to 1880.
Henry VIII. Edward Hall. Edited by Charles
Whibley. See i. 275 and ii. 38.
Why Not Walk Barefoot? Edwin Ransom (Bed-
fordshire Standard, August 19, 1911).
Reminiscences of Hitchin Cricket from 1860-1885.
C. Loftus Barham the Elder (MS. in the possession
of Reginald L. Hine).
Bye-laws made by the Urban District Council of
Hitchin in pursuance of schemes made by them
and approved by the Minister of Agriculture and
Fisheries under the provisions of the Commons Act
1899 with respect to Butts Close, Oughton Head
and Walsworth Common.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Extracts relating to Hitchin from the Patent Rolls.
Full copies taken by Reginald L. Hine.
Extracts relating to Hitchin from the Assize Rolls.
Copies formerly made for Frederic Seebohm and
now in the possession of Reginald L. Hine.
Extracts relating to Hitchin from the Gaol Delivery
Rolls. Copies in the possession of Reginald L. Hine.
Returns of Hitchin Justices relating to criminal
matters in their jurisdiction and as to vagrants,
plague, apprentices, etc. (Cal. of State P. Dom.
cccexxix, No. 56; cccxlix, No. 70; cccliv, No. 184;
cccli, No. 113; ccclxiv, No. 74; ccclxxxv, No. 43}
ccccxx, No. 123 and 138; Ccccxxvli, p. 274).
490 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(893) 1649.
(894) 1669-
1853.
(895) 1680-
1741.
(896) 1692-
1693.
(897) 1718.
(898) 1760-
1929.
(899) 1776.
(900) 1790.
(go1) 1808-
1825.
(902) 1827-
1841.
The Divels delusions or a faithfull relation of John
Palmer and Elizabeth Knott two notorious witches
lately condemned at the Sessions of Oyer and Ter-
miner at St. Albans. Also their accusations of
severall Witches in Hitchen, Norton and other
places. Ref. No. of copy in the B.M., E. 565 (15).
References to Hitchin Crime in those parts of the
Herts Quarter Session Rolls that do not appear in
Hardy’s Notes and Extracts (see No. 72). These
extracts, taken by Reginald L. Hine, have been
numbered and filed for the use of students.
Constables’ Books (St. Mary’s Church Records,
Vols. xxii, Xxili, xxxv). N.B.—A copy of everything
material has been made by Charles Loftus Barham.
The Life of Captain James Whitney, containing his
most Remarkable Robberies, and other Adventures,
continued to his Execution near Smithfield the rst
of February, 1692/3. See also Macaulay’s account
of Whitney in chapter xiv of the History of England.
A True Discovery of the Conduct of Receivers and
Thief ‘Takers, etc. Charles Hitchin. Printed for
the author and given away gratis.
Records of the Petty Sessional Court of Hitchin
with informations, evidence, orders, etc. Filed in
one room in the cellars and two rooms upstairs in
the offices of Messrs. Hawkins & Co., Solicitors,
Portmill Lane, Hitchin.
Account of Hitchin Bridewell. John NHoward’s
State of the Prisons, p. 213.
Sermons on several occasions by the Rev. Pilkington
Morgan. ‘Two vols. N.B.—The B.M. copy has
some MS. notes showing when some of the sermons
were delivered.
Minutes of Special Sessions for the Half-Hundred
of Hitchin held at the Cock Inn and at the house of
William Wilshere (MS. in the possession of Messrs.
Hawkins & Co.; extracts taken by C. Loftus
Barham).
A Volume of Assize and Gaol Delivery Calendars,
presented by A. Mayes to the Museum at Hertford.
See MS. Index under Hitchin.
(903) 1885.
(904) 1901.
(905) 1912.
(906) 1917.
(907) 1926.
(908) 1927.
(909) 1464-
1841.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 491
Calendar of Letters from the Mayor and Corporation
of the City of London, 1350-1370. R.R. Sharpe.
Punishments for Offences in Hertfordshire in the
Olden Times. W. F. Andrews. Herts Mercury,
April and following issues.
Captain James Whitney. W. B. Gerish (East Herts
Arch. Soc. Trans., Vol. iv, part ili, pp. 300-305).
Benefit of Clergy in the ‘Time of Edward IV. C. B.
Firth (The Eng. Hist. Rev., Vol. xxxii, p. 177).
Account of the Life and Execution of John Everett
of Hitchin (The Newgate Calendar, edited by G. T.
Crook, Vol. 111, pp. 49-52).
Crime and Escape in Medieval England (Times
Literary Supplement, January 13th, p. 17).
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS (i)
References to all the Wills named in the chapter on
Wills and Testaments: Margaret Albury, A.H.S.
25.24; Margery Astrix, P.C.C. 25 Bodfelde; William
Astrix, P.C.C. 14 Blamyr; Agnes Audley, A.H.P. 7.
g1; Agnes Audley, A.H.P. 18. 88; Ralph Audley,
P.C.C. 32 Hogen; Robert Audley, A.H.P. 9. 58;
Lettice Banester, P.C.C. 111 Dorset; Laurence Barn,
A.H.P. 4. 129; Francis Berry, A.H.S. 17. 12;
Laurence Bertlott, P.C.C. 3 Wattys; Simon Brady-
son, A.H.P. 5. 18; William Brockett, P.C.C. g
Wrastley; Edmund Browne, A.H.P. 1. 11; Thomas
Cartwright, P.C.C. 26 Harte; John Casterton,
P.C.C. 24 Scott; James Chambers, P.C.C. 43
Daughtry; William Chambers, P.C.C. 20 Ayloffe;
Thomas Chapman, P.C.C. 52 Leicester; James
Cheetham, A.H.P. 2. 262; Mary Corrie, A.H.S. 20.
337; William Corsore, A.H.P. 7. 137; James Cotton,
A.H.P. 13. 20; Elizabeth Dards, A.H.P. 13. 173;
Leonard Daye, P.C.C. 50 Mellershe; Elizabeth
Docwra, P.C.C. 35 Weldon; Thomas Empson,
A.H.S. 14. 188; Edward Feld, A.H.P. 2. 300; John
i. Abbreviations used: P.C C.—Prerogative Court of Canterbury; A.H S.
—Archdeaconry of Huntingdon Wills at Somerset House; A H.P.—Arch-
deaconry of Huntingdon Wills at Peterborough Probate Registry.
492 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Field, A.H.S. 15. 261; George Flinders, A.H.S. 8.
149; Stephen Fox, A.H.S. 3. 42d; Elizabeth Fryday,
A.H.P. 12. 120; Joan Godfrey, A.H.P. 7. 144;
Margaret Grave, A.H.P. 8. 10; Barbara Gregory,
A.H.S. 21. 285; Valentine Hawys, A.H.P. 2. 310;
Agnes Hemmyng, A.H.P. 4. 128; Edward Howe,
A.H.P. 17. 149; William Hubbard, A.H.P. 11. 88;
John Huckle, P.C.C. 1 Carew; Thomas Humberston,
P.C.C. 57 Drake; Edward Hurst, P.C.C. 33 Wind-
sor; Robert Hurst, P.C.C. 65 Barrington; Robert
Hynde, A.H.P. 9. 138; Daniel Joyner, A.H.S. 20.
572; George Kent, P.C.C. 13 Chaynay; Thomas
Kent, A.H.S. 21. 352; Alice Lacye, A.H.P. 8. 50;
John Lawe, A.H.P. 11. 293; Margaret Lawe, A.H.S.
1. 124; John Lorkyn, A.H.P. 7. 86; John Lovell,
A.H.S. 20. 106; Thomas Lowe, A.H.P. 2. 129;
Benjamin Lucas, A.H.S. 20. 384; Sir Robert
Lytton, Ing. P.M., 6 Edw. VI., C. 142/95/99 (1);
Nicholas Mattock, P.C.C. 16 Maynwaryng; John
Middleton, P.C.C. 22 Bennett; ‘Thomas Mondys,
A.H.P. 9. 118; John Monke, A.H.P. 13. 209; Mary
Papworth, A.H.S. 20. 130; William Papworth,
A.H.S. 1. 27; Thomas Parrys, P.C.C. 15 Lewyn;
John Pawpitt, P.C.C. 52 Aylett; John Pope, P.C.C.
27 Ayloffe; John Pulter, P.C.C. 3 Milles; John
Rolfe, A.H.P. 10. 107; Michael Samm, A.H.S. 18.
226; Joane Serle, A.LH.P. 11. 199; William Shepherd,
P.C.C. 28 Stevenson; Edward Spicer, P.C.C. 14
Ayloffe; Mary Swain, A.H.S. 19. 456; Richard
Swansley, A.H.S. 7. 161; Eleanor Tame, A.H.S.
28. 367; Henry Taylor, A.H.S. 18. 29; Francis
Thatcher, A.H.S. 14. 207; Ann Trigg, A.H.S. 20.
295; John Trustram, A.H.P. 10. 82; Edward
Trycotte, A.H.P. 6. 164; James Tydye, A.H.P. 2.
193; Nicholas Tydye, A.H.P. 4. 98; John Warner,
P.C.C. 27 Welles; Edmund White, P.C.C. 258
Alchin; John Wilson, A.H.S. 14. 99; John Wyytt,
A.H.P. 3. 43.
(910) 1465-— A large collection of copies of Hitchin Wills in the
1800.
possession of George E. Smyth of Northfield
House, Henlow.
(911) 1479-
1652.
(912) 1491-
1556.
(913) 1785-
1929.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 493
Calendar of Wills in the Archdeaconry of Hunting-
don compiled by W. M. Noble (1911). A separate
MS. index of the 135 Hitchin Wills has been made
by Reginald L. Hine.
Copies of the following Hitchin Wills in the Preroga-
tive Court of Canterbury in the Frederic Seebohm
Collection: John Scott 1491, John Sturgeon 1492,
John Snowe 1500, Agnes Drake 1501, Edward
Moody 1504, John Rogers 1506, John Middleton
1509, Edward Spicer 1518, John Pope 1519,
William Chambers 1519, John Smyth 1521,
Nicholas Mattock 1521, Margaret Astrye 1523,
John Emmyng 1524, Ralph Audley 1534, John
Fryday 1535, William Audley 1546, William
Chambers 1551, William Brockett 1556 (MSS. in
the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Copies of the Wills proved by Messrs Hawkins & Co.,
Portmill Lane, Hitchin. Five volumes: the first
in octavo, the remaining four in folio. Indexed.
PLACE-NAMES, FIELD-NAMES, AND SURNAMES
(914) 944-
1929.
(915) 1849.
(916) 1860.
(917) 1875.
(918) 1877.
(918@) 1901.
Lists of the Place-names, Field-names and Sur-
names found by Reginald L. Hine in the documents
consulted in the preparation of this History, being
those cited in the Bibliography with the addition of
950 deeds (MSS. in the possession of Reginald L.
Hine).
An Essay on Family Nomenclature. Mark An-
thony Lower. 3rd edition.
Patronymica Britannica. A Dictionary of the
Family Names of the United Kingdom. Mark
Anthony Lower.
English Surnames: Their Sources and Significa-
tions. Charles Wareing Bardsley. 2nd edition.
Hitchin Nomenclature. A poem by George Cowley
bringing in the names of most of the leading towns-
men of that day.
A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames.
Charles Wareing Bardsley.
494 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(919) 1903.
(920) 1904.
(921) 1904.
(922) 1910—
IQI4.
(923) 1914.
(924) 1914.
(925) 1916.
(926) 1922.
(927) 1924.
(928) 1924-
1929.
(929) 1926.
(930) 1927.
(931) 1928.
(932) 1929.
Hitchin identified with Icini in Iter V of the Anton-
ine Itinerary. Rev. A. C. Yorke (Proc. Cambs
Antiq. Soc., No. xlv, New Ser., 5th vol., pp. 2-74).
See also letters from A. C. Yorke to Reginald L.
Hine, dated 1920, in the possession of the latter.
The Place-names of Hertfordshire. Professor W. W.
Skeat.
Notes as to old Hitchin names. Alexander
Pulling (MS. in the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
A Hand-list to the Surnames represented by Inscrip-
tions in the County of Hertford compiled by W. B.
Gerish. The Hitchin names are denoted by the
reference letters C—I (Add. MSS. 39271-39284).
A Record of the Names appearing in the Church and
Graveyard of Hitchin compiled by W. B. Gerish with
the assistance of H. F. Hatch (Add. MSS. 39284).
The Romance of Names. Professor Ernest Weekley.
Surnames. Professor Ernest Weekley.
Place-names and History. Allen Mawer.
Introduction to the Survey of English Place-names.
Part I edited by Professors A. Mawer and F. M.
Stenton; Part II, The Chief Elements used in
English Place-names, edited by Professor Allen
Mawer.
The English Place-name Society. Surveys of
Place-names, county by county, in progress.
Place-names, with Special Reference to their Deriva-
tion from Physical Features and in the Vicinity of
Hitchin. J. E. Little. A lecture delivered to the
Herts Teachers’ Association on the 13th November,
1926 (MS. in the possession of the Author).
Local Place-names. J. E. Little. Articles in the
Herts Express for March 12th and 26th, May azst
and June 11th.
English River-names. Professor Eilert Ekwall.
Letters from Professor Allen Mawer, Professor
Eilert Ekwall and Professor R. E. Zachrisson to
Reginald L. Hine relating to Hitchin Place-names;
and from Professor Ernest Weekley to the same
relating to Hitchin Surnames (MSS. in the posses-
sion of Reginald L. Hine).
(933) 1663-
1730.
(934) 1730-
181g.
(935) 1767-
1806.
(936) 1778.
(937) 1784-
1860.
(938) 1817.
(939) 1828-
1834.
(940) 1836.
(941) 1866—
1912.
(942) 1866—
1929.
(943) 1871-
1898.
(944) 1875-
1895.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 495
THE FIRE BRIGADE
Register Book of Briefs read in the Church at
Hitchin (A MS. which appears to be lost. A sum-
mary of its contents is given in St. Mary’s Parish
Magazine for September 1883).
References to the Fire Brigade in the volumes of
Churchwarden Accounts (MS. in the possession of
Reginald L. Hine).
Short references to about twenty fires at Hitchin and
in its immediate neighbourhood recorded in the
Diary of an Inhabitant of Hitchin (MS. in the
Lewis Evans Collection. Herts County Museum
St. Albans. See also the article entitled A Hitchin
Diarist by H. R. Wilton Hall in the Herts Express,
March 6, 1909).
Account of the twenty houses burnt at Hitchin in
1762. The Tablet of Memory, 4th edn., p. 65;
and see the London Magazine for 1762.
References to the Hitchin Fire Establishment and
repairs to the Fire-engines in the ledgers of the firm
of Isaac and Robert Newton (MS. in the possession
of Charles Loftus Barham).
Regulations painted on a Board in the Engine
House by order of the Hitchin Fire Establishment.
Copy by Septimus Wright, Treasurer, in the
possession of Charles Loftus Barham.
Hitchin Fire Establishment Accounts.
tendent Isaac Newton.
Feb. 29. Minutes of Town’s Meeting held after
Conder’s Fire, with Names of Committee then
appointed and Subscribers to Fund.
The Fire Brigade Diary of Captain Edwin Logsdon
(MS. in the possession of Mrs. Logsdon).
Four illustrated note-books relating to the Fire
Brigade compiled by and in the possession of
F. Fisher.
Collection of News-cuttings and Reports of local
Fires by Captain C. L. Barham.
The Diary of Captain Isaac Chalkley (MS. in the
possession of John T’. Chalkley).
Superin-
496
(945) 1895-
1929.
(946) 1903.
(947) 1904.
(948) 1904.
(949) 1918.
(950) 1919.
(951) 1920.
(952) 1920.
(953) 1920.
(954) 1921.
(955) 1922.
(956) 1922.
(957) 1922-
1929.
THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
Materials collected by Charles Loftus Barham for
a History of the Hitchin Fire Brigade (MSS. in six
large volumes and a number of loose miscellaneous
papers in his possession).
Old memories of November sth. Charles Loftus
Barham (Herts Express, November 14th).
Account of the opening of the New Fire Brigade
Station in Paynes Park. Charles Loftus Barham
(Herts Express, August 2oth).
Hitchin Fire Brigade: Some Reminiscences of
Bygone Days. Charles Loftus Barham (Herts
Express, November 19th and December 24th).
The Great Ashwell Fire of 1850. H.W. Bowman
(MS. in the possession of Charles Loftus Barham).
An Address on the Early History of the Brigade on
the Occasion of their Annual Dinner, November sth,
by Reginald L. Hine (MS. in his possession).
Historical Notes relating to the Hitchin Fire
Brigade. Edgar Newton (MS. in the possession of
Charles Loftus Barham).
Hitchin Fire Brigade—1720 to 1920. An address
by Charles Loftus Barham at the annual meeting
of the Hitchin Fire Brigade (Herts Express,
November 2oth).
Letters from the Sun Insurance Office and the
Phoenix Assurance Company to Charles Loftus
Barham giving particulars of their financial assist-
ance to the Hitchin Fire Brigade from 1781 onwards.
A Fireman’s Jubilee, giving an account of the fifty
years’ service of Captain C. L. Barham with the
Hitchin Fire Brigade (Herts Express, August 6th).
Historical notes upon the old Firemen and Engines
of North Herts. Charles Loftus Barham (Herts
Express, March 25, April 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd).
The Hitchin Fire Brigade. Charles Loftus Barham.
A paper read before the Hitchin Literary and Debat-
ing Society, January (MS. in his possession).
Official Diary of the Hitchin Fire Brigade. In
progress (MSS. in the possession of the Hon.
Secretary, W. G. Grant).
BIBLIOGRAPHY 497
MISCELLANEOUS
(952) 1475- Miscellaneous collection of deeds and documents
1860. relating to the Wilshere family and to the town of
Hitchin at The Frythe, Welwyn. By the courtesy
of Miss Wilshere these have been examined by the
author. Comprising about 12,000 papers, they may
be roughly classified as follows: (1) Freehold, copy-
hold and leasehold deeds of the Wilshere Hitchin
estates. (2) Instruction books, conveyancing papers
and legal memoranda of the firms of George Draper
of Hitchin and of William Wilshere, his successor.
(3) Letters, diaries and note-books of William
Wilshere, Thomas Wilshere and Charles Willes
Wilshere. (4) Drafts of Hitchin wills prepared
by William Wilshere. (5) Papers relating to (a)
Hitchin Petty Sessions, (5) Hitchin Bridewell,
(c) Hitchin Poor Law, (d) Petitions against the Slave
Trade, (e) Petitions in favour of the Reform Bill,
(f) Hitchin Book Society, (g) Hitchin Church,
faculties and repairs.
(953) 1697. A letter from Robert Tailor, Apothecary at Hitchin
in Hertfordshire, to Hans Sloane describing a great
hailstorm there on May 4, 1697. (Philosophical
Transactions, giving some account of the present
undertakings, studies and labours of the Ingenious
in many considerable parts of the world. Vol. xix,
Pp. 577-8).
(953a) 1717-— References to Hitchin amongst 15,000 letters and
1890. papers of the Thompson family, formerly at Elm-
side, Hitchin, and now in the possession of Miss
Thompson of Bournemouth. Extracts taken by
Reginald L. Hine.
(954) 1741. A Survey of the Corn Tythings of Hitchin by John
Davis (MS. in the possession of Messrs. Hawkins
& Co.).
(955) 1760. An Act for Dividing and Enclosing the Open and
Common Fields and Grounds in the Hamlet of
Walsworth.
(956) 1767. Diary of Daniel Coulson (MS. in the possession of
VOL. I. II
4988 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(957) 1802.
(958) 1803-
1813.
(959) 1811-
1929.
(960) 1815-
1867.
(961) 1819.
(962) 1850—
1872.
(963) 1853.
(964) 1856.
(965) 1869.
(966) 1870-
1885.
(967) 1872.
George Newton. Extracts in the possession of
Reginald L. Hine).
The Pocket Book of Dr. Churchill of Hitchin (MS.
in the possession of C. Loftus Barham).
Records of the Hitchin Volunteers, including the
Engagement and Articles entered into by them,
subscriptions of clothing and equipment, lists of fines
for non-attendance and quitting the corps, circular
letter as to drill and manceuvres from Lieut.-Col.
Wilshere, muster-roll of Captain Crabb’s Company
and Captain Eade’s Company, payments to inn-
keepers, reports of the guard, list of married men
serving and the applications of their wives for relief,
medical officers’ reports, casualty list of those serving
in the Hertfordshire Midland Local, etc. (MSS. in
the custody of C. Loftus Barham).
Minute Books and Reports of the Hitchin and
Baldock Auxiliary Bible Society. A complete run
of these, and of the reports of the Hitchin Ladies’
Bible Association founded in 1819, is in the posses-
sion of the executor of Miss Thompson of Elmside.
Diary of Joseph Sharples (MS. in the possession of
Francis Ransom).
Catalogue of Books in the library of the New Book
Society, Hitchin. It was founded in 1813.
Notes on the Lucas family, 1850 and 1869, and
diaries for 1871, 1872. Francis Lucas (MSS. in
the possession of Miss Marianna Lucas).
Hitchin Corn Exchange. Illustrated London News,
April 23rd.
Catalogue of the Exhibition held at the Town Hall
to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hitchin
Mechanics’ Institution.
The Sanitary Conditions of the Town of Hitchin.
A paper read at the Town Hall by Bailey Denton.
Herts Express, November 2oth.
Biographical notes of Hitchin townsmen compiled
by Francis Lucas (MS., 216 pp., in alphabetical
order, in the possession of Wm. ‘Tindall Lucas).
Hitchin Volunteer Corps. List of members (MS.
in the possession of F. R. Shillitoe).
(968) 1889.
(970) 1889-
IQIO
(971) 1892.
(972) 1897.
(973) 1897.
(974) 1898.
(975) 1901.
(976) 1902.
(977) 1902.
(978) 1902.
(979) 1903.
(980) 1903.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 499
Trade Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century.
William Boyne, revised by George C. Williamson.
Hitchin refs., Vol. i, pp. 315-318.
Architectural notes, drawings, sketches and measure-
ments of the following buildings: The Plough, The
Cooper’s Arms, The Trooper’s Inn, The Priory
Park, Bancroft House, old house at Highbury.
Walter Millard (MS. in the possession of Reginald L.
Hine).
An Archeological Survey of Hertfordshire. John
Evans, D.C.L., PS.A., etc. No index, but for
Hitchin see pp. 1, 2, 6, 7, 13.
Saxon Coins found near Hitchin. F. Latchmore.
Numismatical Chronicle, No. XVII, p. 248. A
further note of the same appears in the Proceedings
of the Cambs Antiquarian Society, Vol. vii, pp.
152-156.
The Palzolithic Deposits at Hitchin and their
relation to the Glacial Epoch. Clement Reid (Pro-
ceedings of Royal Soc., Vol. Ixi, p. 40). Reprinted
in Herts Nat. -Hist. Soc. Trans., Vol. x, Pt. 1,
pp- 14-22.
In Lavender Land, with five illustrations of Hitchin
Lavender fields (Cassell’s New Penny Magazine,
October 12th, pp. 31-34).
George Chapman of Hitchin, Poet and Dramatist.
1599-1634. A paper read before the Hitchin
Society of Arts and Letters by Wentworth Huyshe
(MS. in the possession of Wentworth Huyshe).
The Tylers’ Guildhall. Geo. Aylott. East Herts.
Arch. Soc. Trans., Vol. 11, Pt. 1, pp. 78-81.
An Account with Plans of the Earthwork known as
Gosmore Mount, Hitchin. Rev. E. A. Downman
(Guildhall Library MSS. Downman. No. 324).
The Brotherhood House, Bancroft, Hitchin. Herts
Mercury, November 8th.
The Old Cattle Market at Hitchin. Herts Express,
November 7th.
A bundle of papers relating to the Brotherhood
House and The Croft compiled by Charles Willes
Wilshere, Alexander Pulling, Frederic Seebohm and
500 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(981) 1904-
IQgII.
(982) 1910.
(983) 1912.
(984) 1915.
(985) 1917-
IgIg.
(986) 1919-
1922.
(987) 1923.
(988) 1924.
(989) 1925.
Wentworth Huyshe (MSS. in the possession of
Reginald L. Hine).
Hertfordshire Archzological Notes and Queries.
Contributed to the Herts Mercury. See the MS.
index compiled by W. B. Gerish in St. Albans
Public Library. Hitchin refs. 14-15, 19-20.
The Croft, Hitchin. W. F. Andrews and George
Aylott.
An Account of Fifteen Tokens issued by Hitchin
Tradesmen in the Seventeenth Century. George
Buller (MS. and some of the original tokens in the
possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Pedigree of the ‘Tristram, alias Trystram and
Trustram family of Hitchin, from 1289-1895, by
Edward Tristram, F.S.A., and E. J. Trustram.
The Hytchynne Chronicle by Gildas the Younger.
Written anonymously by the Rev. J. G. Williams,
M.A., and printed in the Choir Journal of St.
Saviour’s Church, Hitchin. Gives a quaint, monk-
ishly written and lively account of Hitchin in the
last years of the war and the first year of the peace
(MS. in the possession of its author).
Minute Book of the Hitchin War Memorial Com-
mittee. Illustrated with paper cuttings, designs
and photographs from the Herts Express (MS. in
the custody of the Honorary Secretary, W. P.
Flint).
Pedigrees of Newton of Oundle and Hitchin.
Communicated by A. R. Martin (Miscellanea
Genealogica et Heraldica. Ed. A. W. Hughes
Clarke. Fifth Series, Vol. v, Pt. iv, pp. 106-116, and
see previous article in New Series, Vol. 1. pp. 169
et seq., and letters from A. R. Martin to Reginald L.
Hine in the possession of the latter).
Some Recollections of Old Hitchin Mills. J. E.
Little (Herts Express, December 15th and following
issues).
The English Inn Past and Present. <A. E. Richard-
son and H. D. Eberlein. Refs. to the Sun, the
Cooper’s Arms and the Three Tuns, Hitchin,
pp. 97, 110, 246. N.B.—The Index is defective.
(990) 1925.
(991) 1926.
(992) 1927.
(993) 1927.
(994) 1927.
(995) 1928.
(996) 1928.
(997) 1639.
(998) 1640-
1649.
(999) 1704.
(1000) 1714.
BIBLIOGRAPHY sol
The Natural History of Hertfordshire A. Wilmore
and others (Hitchin refs. 2, 4, 29, 33, 34, 38, 72).
History of Barclays Bank, Ltd. P. W. Matthews
and Anthony W. Tuke. For the history of the
Hitchin Branch see pp. 164—168.
Notes on the half-timbered houses remaining at
Hitchin. Stephen Simmons (MS. in the possession
of Reginald L. Hine).
Emily Davies and Girton College. Barbara Stephen.
For the foundation at Hitchin see pp. 219-288.
Hertfordshire Regional Planning Report. W. R.
Davidge. No index; but for Hitchin see pp. 17,
19, 22, 24-27, 31, 38, 40-41, 52, 58, 66, 84, 89.
Westmill, the story of a Hertfordshire parish. Guy
Ewing. Index defective, but for references to
Hitchin under Kendale, Turk, Biggin, Sturgeon
and Salmon see pp. 24-25, 47-49 and 81.
List of Hitchin Records in Letchworth Museum,
compiled by W. Percival Westell, Curator, and
Miss F. K. Jennings, Custodian (MS. in the posses-
sion of Reginald L. Hine).
SCHOOLS AND CHARITIES
Grant by John Mattock of Conygree, Cow Close
and other lands at Hitchin, for the maintenance of
a master of the Free School in Tilehouse Street.
Additional endowments were made by Joseph Kemp
in 1654, by ‘Thomas Honilove in 1688, by Edward
Radcliffe in 1660, by John Skynner in 1666, by
Thomas Kidner in 1667, by John Davis in 1790,
by Joseph Margetts Pierson in 1798, by William
Dawes in 1729, and by William Wilshere in 1824
(Deeds in the custody of the Trustees of the Hitchin
United Charities).
Accounts of repair done to the Old Free School
(Hale MSS. in the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Names of surviving and deceased Trustees of the
several Hitchin Charities (St. Mary’s Church
Records, Packet No. 11).
Orders by the Lord Chancellor for the better
502 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
(1001) 1734-
1819.
(1002) 1750—
1817.
(1003) 1750.
(1004) 1750.
(1005) 1750—-
1762.
(1006) 1777-
1819.
(1007) 1823.
(1008) 1824.
(1009) 1824-
1929.
(1010) 1833.
(1011) 1836.
(1012) 1837-
1929.
regulation of the Free School of Hitchin (MS. in
the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Four manuscript volumes entitled Hitchin Chari-
ties (St. Mary’s Church Records, 24, 25, 25a and 26).
Miscellaneous Bundle of leases and repairs of
Charity Lands, receipts for quit rents, copy wills
making charitable bequests (St. Mary’s Church
Records, Packet No. 5).
A list of the persons appointed as additional
Trustees of the Charity Free School of Hitchin
(MS. in the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
Surrender by Mark Hildesley of a Copyhold
Cottage in Portmill Lane as a School for the
instruction of poor girls. Additional endowments
were given by Charles Nicholls Field, 1752, John
Whitehurst, 1755, William Maurice Bogdani, 1789,
Joseph Margetts Pierson, 1795.
Accounts of Richard ‘Tristram relating to the
Free School at Hitchin (MSS. in the possession of
Hawkins & Co.).
Three Volumes containing minutes of the meetings
of the Trustees of the Free School (MS. in the
custody of Hawkins & Co. Copies and extracts
have been made by C. L. Barham).
Rules for the Government of the Dispensary for
the relief of the Sick and Lame poor of Hitchin
and the vicinity.
Will of William Wilshere endowing the Back
Street School which he had founded in 1810.
Minute Books and Admission Registers of the
British School, later known as the Wilshere-Dacre
School.
Report of the Commissioners for inquiring con-
cerning Charities. Hitchin, 297-338. ‘This was
printed in book form by Charles Paternoster of
Hitchin in 1836.
An account of the Hitchin Charities extracted from
the Further Report of the Commissioners appointed
in pursuance of 1 & 2 Will. IV, c. 34.
Minute Books of the Trustees of the Hitchin
Charities since 1908 known as the Hitchin United
BIBLIOGRAPHY 503
Charities (Four volumes in the custody of J. J.
Shilcock, the present Clerk. The earlier volumes
are missing).
(1013) 1841. Papers showing cost of building of the Hitchin
Dispensary, with balance sheet and first annual
report (St. Mary’s Church Records, Packet No. 7).
(1014) 1841. Rules and Regulations for the Government of the
Hitchin Dispensary.
(1015) 1853— Minute Books and Registers of St. Mary’s Church
1929. School.
(1016) 1885. Some Hitchin Statistics respecting the Charitable
Endowments, Voluntary Institutions, and Places of
Worship in the town of Hitchin, with a religious
census. W. J. Fitch.
(1017) 1886. Schedule of deeds relating to the Hitchin Charities
in the custody of Hawkins & Co. Copy entered
in the Minute Book of the Charities under this year.
(1018) 1888. Hitchin Grammar School. Scheme for the Ad-
ministration of the Foundation and Endowments.
(1019) 1906. Scheme for the administration of the United
Charities of Hitchin.
(1020) 1917. Letter from Edwin Ransom to Isaac Sharp giving
an account of the Friends’ Schools at Hitchin in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Copy in
the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
(1021) 1920— Lists of the early Masters, Under-Masters and
1927. Pupils of the Free School at Hitchin, and extracts
concerning the conduct, repairs and management
of the same as found in the records of the town
(MSS. in the possession of Reginald L. Hine).
N.B.—All the four county histories (see Bibliography, Vol. I,
Nos. 8, 28, 50, 79) give particulars of the Hitchin Charities and
Schools.
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF
SUBSCRIBERS
N.B.—For the list of original subscribers see Vol. I, pp. 349-375.
AITKEN, JAMES H. S., Four Oaks, Reedley, Burnley, Lancs.
ALLEN, J. ARCHIBALD, Wynnstow, Oxted, Surrey.
BAGSHAWE, 'THOMAS W., F.S.A., F.G.S., Kingsbury, Dunstable.
Baker, Mrs., 9, Victoria Road, Hitchin (2).
Ba.carnig, W. A., The Leys School, Cambridge.
BarcLay, Mrs. HuBEertT, Orchards, Letty Green, Hertford.
BARHAM, R. V. Lortus, Doleham, West Hill, Hitchin.
BARKER, ARTHUR, The Lodge, Little Benslow Hills, Hitchin.
BARKER, FRANK, 12, Sun Street, Hitchin.
BarnicoTtT, Mrs., London Road, St. Ippolyts.
BARRELL, B. S., 3, York Road, Hitchin.
Bax, ARNOLD, 155, Fellows Road, London, N.W. 3.
BEpDForD ARTs CLuB (Wm. Oram, 72, Clapham Road).
BeEeEvor, Mrs. H., Farndon Lodge, Farndon, Newark.
BLUNDELL, HuBERT, West Home, Hitchin.
BOWEN-ARMSTRONG, Rev. R., 3, Chisholm Road, Richmond.
BRAITHWAITE, J. B., Lee Wood, Woodside Avenue, Muswell Hill,
N. ro.
BRAITHWAITE, J. F., Sherborne House, Hoddesdon.
BRONSON, PRoFEsSOR W. C., Brown University, Providence, R.I.,
U.S.A.
Brown, Miss MarcGaretT, Highfield, Luton.
Brown, Mrs., Cadwell Gate, Ickleford.
BrYANT, ARTHUR W., 28 B, North Audley Street, W. 1.
BuRGEs, C., 20, Benslow Lane, Hitchin.
Burton, A. A. C., 30, Rosehill Road, Burnley.
Bussy, W. F., Further Bowers, Harpenden.
BUYTAERS, FATHER EVARISTE, The Presbytery, Hitchin.
Cannon, A. W., 14, Narborough Street, Wandsworth Bridge
Road, Fulham, S.W. 6.
CaNNON, CeciL R. M., Woodview, Walsworth Road, Hitchin.
CaNNON, Epwarp G. M., Woodview, Walsworth Road, Hitchin.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 505
CANNON, FREDA Mary, Woodview, Walsworth Road, Hitchin.
CANNON, Harry METCALFE, Woodview, Walsworth Road,
Hitchin.
CaNNON, PHYLLIS, Woodview, Walsworth Road, Hitchin.
CANNON, VICTOR METCALFE, Woodview, Walsworth Road,
Hitchin.
CAWLEY, THE Hon. VIVIENNE, Brooklands, Prestwick, Manchester.
CHAPMAN, FRANCIS DAVENPORT, R.M.D., No. 1, Duncan, British
Columbia.
CHAPMAN, His Honour JupDGE, Lindum House, Lincoln.
CHERRY, EDWARD 'THoOmMas, Walsworth.
CriarKE, Mrs., The Croft, Longmorn, Elgin, Morayshire.
CLERK, AYLMER G., Major, D.S.O., M.C., 11, Birchin Lane,
E.C. 3.
Cook, Miss HELEN M., Peascod Hall, St. Ippolyts.
Cooper, Miss, 26, Trevor Road, Hitchin.
CorBeTT, W. H., The Bungalow, Gray’s Lane, Hitchin.
Cow Ley, W. G., 4, Walsingham Road, Enfield.
Date, Lapy, Winterslow, Boars Hill, Oxford.
DARLINGTON, H. R., Park House, Potters Bar.
Day, GorRDON, 12, Churchyard, Hitchin.
Day, STANLEY L., Gosmore House, nr. Hitchin.
DEED, Miss, Preston School, Preston, Hitchin.
Docwra RocErs, CAPTAIN JOHN, 65, Cheyne Court, Chelsea,
S.W. 3.
DRINKWATER, JOHN, Pepys House, Brampton, Hunts.
DUNSTABLE LIBRARY AND Museum, Kingsbury, Dunstable.
Eaves, Mrs. L., Brampton Villa, 130, Bearton Road, Hitchin.
ELLis, BERNARD, Church Leys, Rearsby, Leicestershire.
FARMBOROUGH, Percy, The Crescent, Kimpton, Herts.
Fie.tp, F. W., 31, Bedford Road, Hitchin (2).
FLawn, N. J., Otterburn, The Avenue, Hitchin.
FLETCHER, Mrs. DuDLEy, 2, Greame Street, Whalley Range,
Manchester.
Forp, REGINALD B., National Provincial Bank, Ltd., Letchworth.
ForpuHaM, Sir GeorGcE, Odsey, Ashwell, Baldock (2).
506 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
FRENCH, W., 60, Whinbush Road, Hitchin.
Fryer, Mrs. EpitH L., 2, Medina Villas, Hove.
GAINSFORD, THE Rev. G. B., Woodside, Hitchin.
Garratt, G., Bancroft, Trinity Street, Llandudno.
GEORGE, FREDERICK, The Beeches, West Hill, Hitchin.
GippIncs, Miss, Cadwell Gate House, Ickleford.
GorF, THOMAS J., 33, Lancaster Road, Hitchin.
GOLDSMITH, W. W., The Triangle, Hitchin.
GRANT, Muss, at Newlands, Hitchin.
GRIBBLE, L. J. G., B.Sc., The Linhay, Knebworth.
GuINNEss, C., London Road, Hitchin.
Hai, Mrs. Davin, The Grange, Great Wymondley, Stevenage.
Haxi-SmiTH, Dr. P., Russettings, Sutton, Surrey.
HAMBRIDGE, EpwarpD W., The Nook, Bearton Avenue, Hitchin.
HAMPDEN, VISCOUNT, K.C.B., C.M.G., 21, Cadogan Square,
London, S.W. 1.
HANSCOMBE, WILLIAM HAMMOND, Pirton Hall, nr. Hitchin.
HENSLEY, SISTER L., 11, Trevor Road, Hitchin.
Hit, F. H., Homewood, Old Hale Way, Hitchin.
Hii., Lapy, Hexton Manor, near Hitchin.
Hirst, Miss Norau, Crosland, Links Road, St. Anne’s-on-Sea (2).
Houmes, Mrs. Cari, The Node, Codicote, Welwyn.
Ho.imes, Mrs., Cherrywood Cottage, Bedwell Lane, Stevenage.
HOLLINSHED, Miss, 306, Norton Way, Letchworth.
HORSFIELD, GEORGE, Whitton Lodge, Ipswich.
Huck.e, Mrs., 70, Bancroft, Hitchin.
HuaGueEs, E. F., 34, John Street, Bedford Row, London, W.C. 1.
IssoTT, Mrs. E. F., Coneygrass, Old Hale Way, Hitchin.
James, Mrs. J. (née Curry), Chicopee, Mass., U.S.A.
JorDAN, G. L. A., 1, Bearton Road, Hitchin.
KEWLEY, Miss, 1, Lancaster Avenue, Hitchin.
KipMan, Dr. G. E., M.B., B.S. London, 134, Osmaston Park,
Derby.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 507
KinG’s COLLEGE LIBRARY, LONDON (F. W. Walton, librarian).
Kirsy, Miss, Kershaw’s Hill, Hitchin.
KNOWLES, J. C., Midland Bank Chambers, Letchworth.
LAWRENCE, Mrs., 4, Lancaster Avenue, Hitchin.
LEE, Miss E. G., 10, St. Paul’s Road, Kersal, Manchester.
Leys SCHOOL, THE, CAMBRIDGE (J. V. Duvell, librarian).
Lister, THE MissEs, 61, High Road, Leytonstone, Essex.
Lowpen, Mrs. K. E., 254, Waterloo Road, Burslem, Stoke-on-
Trent.
Lucas, Miss CAROLINE M., Castle Precincts, Lewes.
Lucas, Miss MarILpa, Stanegarth, Shap, Westmorland.
MarTIN, ALAN R., Hirst Lodge, 18, Kidbrooke Park Road,
Blackheath, S.E. 3.
Meek, Mrs. E., 7, Chepstow Mansions, London, W. 2.
MILLERSHIP, F. G., Castlemere, Digswell, Welwyn.
Monk, A. G., 34, Bearton Road, Hitchin.
MorrELt, J. B., Burton Croft, York.
Mossop, Miss, Hexton Manor, Hitchin.
Munro, WILFRED H., 115, Butler Avenue, Providence, R.I.,
U.S.A.
MurreE.is, H., Ma Petite Maisonette, Church Park Drive, Pitsea,
Essex.
NeEwTon, ALLEN M., Puha, Gisborne, New Zealand.
NewrTon, E. E., Hampstead, Esdaile Gardens, Upminster, Essex.
OLpHaAM, CHaAS., F.L.S., F.Z.S., The Bollin, Berkhamsted.
OrancE, Mrs., 75, Tilehouse Street, Hitchin.
PALMER, A. E., 14, Ampton Street, London, W.C. r.
PANGBOURNE, W., 1, Priory Garden Mansions, Hastings.
PARKER, Miss VERA, 93, Dollis Hill Avenue, Cricklewood,
N.W. 2 (2).
PATEMAN, J., 58, Grove Road, Hitchin.
Paton, Miss M. E., Y.W.C.A., Ashwell Thorpe, Clarendon Road,
Watford.
5088 THE HISTORY OF HITCHIN
PENROSE, The Hon. Mrs. J. Doyle, Oxhey Grange, Watford.
Peterson, A. L., Tudor House, Hitchin.
PETERSON, FRANKLIN E., 228, New York Avenue, Brooklyn, New
York, U.S.A.
Puituips, AmMyas, The Manor House, Bancroft, Hitchin (2).
PIPE, THE Rev. W. H. W., Durlston, Drove Road, Biggleswade.
Pirkis, Mrs. J. A., Hainault, West Hill, Hitchin.
POWELL, Harry W., The School House, Ickleford.
Pym, FREDERICK W., Hasells Hall, Sandy, Beds.
ReaD, CHAS., 155, W. Ridgeland Avenue, Oak Park, IIl., U.S.A.
Reap, Miss, 9, Providence Terrace, Highbury, Hitchin.
REED, CAPTAIN CHARLES G., National Farmers’ Union, St. Albans.
REYNOLDs, Mrs. G. N., Corndean Hall, Winchcomb, Glos.
Rosson, Mrs. E. E., Saltburn, Yorkshire.
Rocers, THE Rev. HENRY, Coltishall Hall, Norwich.
RussEL.L, Mrs. H., London Road, Hitchin.
SAINT Mary’s SCHOOL, Hitchin.
SapseD, Mrs., Barksells, Benington, Stevenage.
Scort, F., 7, Brand Street, Hitchin.
SEWELL, Mrs., 39, Walsworth Road, Hitchin.
SHACKLEFORD, THE Rev. G.5., The Vicarage, Kingswalden, Herts.
SHARP, FRANK, 63, Ickleford Road, Hitchin.
SHarp, Miss M. L., Benella, Birchwood Road, Parkstone, Dorset.
SHREEVES, J., Inglewood, 15, Southborne Road, Sheffield.
SMITH, B. A., Barclays Bank, Hitchin.
SMITH, BasiL DONNE, 67, Bancroft, Hitchin.
SMITH, CoL. ABEL HENRY, D.L., Woodhall Park, Hertford.
SMITH-GoarD, Miss EunNIcE, 150, Washington Terrace, Bridge-
port, Connecticut, U.S.A.
SMYTH, GEORGE, White Hill, Hitchin.
SmytuH, Miss L., 28, The Avenue, Hitchin.
SPALDING, MELVIN P., 137, East Forty-Sixth Street, New York.
Speak, Mrs. W. H., 26, Chiltern Road, Hitchin.
SpriccGs, J. T., 10, Victoria Road, Hitchin.
STEPHEN, ALEx., 8, Highbury Road, Hitchin.
STRATHMORE, THE COUNTESS OF, St. Paul’s Walden Bury, Herts.
STRUDWICK, Mrs. J., Weston, Stevenage.
SUCKLING, Messrs., & Co., 13, Garrick Street, London, W.C. 2 (2).
SWORDER, Miss, Almshoe, Baldock Road, Letchworth.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 509
Tay_or, Miss, 89, Tilehouse Street, Hitchin.
Tuomas, Mrs., Langney House, Highbury Road, Hitchin.
THompson, H. Stuart, 2, Alexandra Road, Clifton, Bristol.
TREGOSSE-FRosT, Mrs., Raddon, Chudleigh, South Devon.
Tucker, A. K., M.A., Crantock, Rooksmead Road, Sunbury-on-
Thames.
Tuxe, Miss, Bedford College, Regent’s Park, N.W. 1 (2).
University oF Micuican, Ann Arbor, U.S.A. (William Warner
Bishop, librarian).
Wates, NATIONAL Lrprary oF, Aberystwyth.
Wavcu, ALEC, Savile Club, London, W.
Wess, H. E., Barclays Bank, Hitchin.
Wess, J., 6, Lancaster Road, Hitchin.
WELWYN GARDEN City REGIONAL Survey (W. R. Hucues, Hon.
Sec.), 7, Bridge Road, Welwyn Garden City.
WESTMINSTER Pusiic Liprary, Buckingham Palace Road, 5.W.
(F. Pacy, librarian).
Woopwarp, C. C., Kemacott, Parracombe, nr. Barnstaple,
Devon.
Youne, Miss K., Berry House, Grove Road, Hitchin.
INDEX (i)
SUBJECTS
Addenda and Corrigenda, II 451-2
Agriculture, I 47, 50, 59, 65, 132,
247; II. 260, 364, 371-3, 394, 417;
421, 425
Almshouses, I. 53; II 418, 420, 502
Apprentices, I. 246, 249, 250; II. 287,
300-1.
Archery, IT. 241-2, 251, 265
Armada, I 114, 239; II 416
Banks, I. 306; II 420, 424, 428, 430,
487, 501
Baptists, II. 44-96
Beadle, I. 55, 229, 230, 238, 240
Beating of bounds, I 228
Bells, I 77, 93, 98, 106-7, 216, 225-6,
235, 240-1, 249, 250; II 36, 113
Benedictines, I. 69, 70, 71, 78
Biggin, I. 149-75
Black Death, I 42
Body-guard service, I. 28-9
Body-snatching, II 320, 424
Borough rights, I 34-5
Bowls, I. 280, II 176, 254
Brasses, I 86, 111, 118, 121, 128,
134, II 42, 362
Briefs, I 238-9; II. 392
Bullbaiting, II. 243, 361
Capital Punishment, ITI. 320-1
Cards, I 251; II 251-3, 269, 322
Carmelites, I. 125-48
Carnivals, II. 400-1
Carriers, I 306~7
Cattle-plague, I 60, II. 86, 197
Cemetery, II. 430
Census, II. 298, 421-2, 424-5, 428,
433, 436
Chantries, I. 78, 80
Chapels, II. 75, 95, 102, 129, 132,
335, 426, 430-1, 433
Charities, I. 172-4; Il. 434, 501-3
Church, I 68-124, Roman Catholic,
II. 433; St. Mark’s, IT. 434; St.
Saviour’s, II 430
Churchwardens, I 224-44
Churchyard, I 237, 239; II 320, 425
Civil War, I 176-207
Clerks, parish, I. 231, 233, 236
Clubs (Welwyn and Royston), IT,
249, 251
Coaches, I 117, 298, 300-8; II. 131
Coins: British, II 410; Roman, II.
251; Saxon, II 499
Commons, I. 47, 60, 64-5; II. 3582,
431, 497
Congregationalists, II 97-134
Cricket, II. 250, 265, 274, 489
Crier, I. 55, 259, 272, 288
Crime, II 276-326
Danegeld, I. 30; II. 278
Danish Encampment, II. 250
Doctors, I. 63, 116, 263-7; II 374
Dog-whippers, I. 232
Domesday Book, I. 27, 53, 7°, 7%,
278; II. 24, 42, 359
Drunkenness, I. 32, 117 7., 174, 269;
II. 72, 84, 85, 91, 107, 110, 115,
116, 121, 249, 326
Ducking-stool, I. 56, 238
Earthquakes, I. 72, 74, II 116, 199
Elections, II. 254, 256
Enclosures, I 257; II 431
Epidemics, Black Death, Plague, I.
42, 119, 142, 247, 265, 266; II.
95, 281, 329, 414, 416-19, 421, 426
Epitaphs, I. 52, 63, 108, 118, 119, 120;
II. 108
Fairs, I. 31, 38, 53, 82, 190, 251
1. Thanks are due to Mrs. K. A Patmore of Denton, Canterbury, for the
preparation of this Index; and some apology for the exclusion, due to the cost
of printing, of much of her original compilation.
The unabridged MS. has
been bound for the author and 1s at the service of serious students. What 1s
here printed 1s arranged 1n three sections: Index of Subjects; Index of Persons ;
Index of Places. As the History 1s in subject form, the first section has been
reduced more in proportion than the other two.
512
Famine, I. 41, 200, 215, 247, 267;
II. 313, 421, 479
Field-names, II. 363-6
Fires and Firemen, II. 382-407
Fishing, I. 63; II. 269, 376-7
Football, If. 244, 249, 266, 272
Fraternity or gild, I, 82-4, 89, 96,
99, 112, 122, 145, 234
Freemasonry, I. 75, 87”; II 427
Friendly Societies, II. 124, 127, 422-5,
420, 428, 434
Gaol, Bridewell, I. 204, 250, 265,
IT. 300, 307, 309, 310, 319, 432
Gas, II. 426
Ghosts, I. 207, 207 2.; II. 39, 317
Gilbertines, I, 150-61
Graffiti, I. 92 ”., 99, 121-2
Guy Fawkes Day, II. 214, 392, 399-
401
Harvest custom, II. 260
Harvestmen, Irish, II. 261
Hawking, I. 50; II 241-3
Highwaymen, I. 302-5, II. 300-2
Highways and byways, II 277-310
Hospitals: Bedlam, I 264, Guy’s, I.
264; Hitchin, IT. 424, 428, 434-6,
503
House of Correction, II 306, 313, 319
Hunting, I. 41; II. 49, 239, 241, 253,
263-5, 488-9
Ilegitimates, I. 261-3, 265
Inns : Adam and Eve, II. 74 2.; Angel,
II. 278, 293, 361; Artichoke, IT.
261; Cock, I 64, 147, 229, 269,
270; II. 342, 360, 420, Highlander,
II. 261; Moorhens, II. 152, 324;
Red Hart, II. 312; Red Lion, I.
147, 248, 269, 306; Sun, I. 189,
256,269,297, 306, 425; II 38, 189,
268, 274, 293-4, 420-1, 425-6;
Swan, I. 226, 269, 432,; Three
Tuns, II. 261; Troopers’ Arms,
I. 255; Tumble-down Dick, I
221 1M.
Inoculation, I. 266; II. 117, 421
Institute, Mechanics’, II. 426, 498
Insurance, fire, II. 386, 391 and n,
394
Irish, refugee, I. 227; relief, I. 180;
Ti. 482; Wars, I 210-11
SUBJECTS
Jews, I. 30, 39, 43, 295-6; II. 280,
284, 287, 413
King’s Evil, I 142, 233; II. 32, 103
Knights of St John, I 245
Knights Templars, I. 30, 111; II.
358, 411-12, 415
Levellers, I 217
Libraries, II. 426, 436, 469, 477, 498
Linen burial, II. 332 and 2.
Lollards, I 134, 136, 139, 153; II. 44
Longevity, I 52-3, 115, 118; II. 434
Magistrates, II. 288, 295, 298, 299,
305, 311, 312, 321, 325
Manor, I. 23-67
Market, I. 36, 49, 55, 57, 58, 83, 132,
208, 247, 259, 282, 288, 295, 297;
II 360, 413, 415, 432-3
May Day, II. 256-9
Maypoles, I. 212, 216, 217, 222; II.
246, 361,
Medicinal springs, II 250
Militia, I. 180, 185-6, 197, 243, 271;
II 161
Mills, I. 27, 34, 48, 52, 57, 61, 281;
II 386, 418, 421, 423, 430
Minsden, I 241-2; II. 23-43
Miracle, a, II 102-4
Morrowmass, I. 93, 240 7.
Names, II. 53 2, 350-81, 447-9, 493
Nurse, I 115 7 ; parish, I. 265
Oaths: Allegiance, II. 73; Supremacy,
I. 142
Organ, I. 93, 107, 140, 154, 216;
II 95, 131-4
Overseers, I. 252, 255, 259, 268, 269,
272, 274
Padlers, I. 294
Parliament: Cavalier, II. 146; Com-
mons, I. 49, 180, 183, 188, 210,
214; the Long, I. 179; Lords, I.
188; II. 31
Passes, I. 227; II. 303, 452
Peasants’ revolt, II. 286
Penance, I. 99; II. 293
Perjury, IT. 312
Persecution, religious, IT.
139-47, 212-16, 425
61-74,
SUBJECTS
Pesthouse, I. 265; II. 361
Pilgrim’s Progress, U1. 71, 73, 462
Place-names, II. 350-63
Plays, II 45, 261
Poisoning, II 305
Poor, I. 245~—76
* Possessioning,’ I 228
Postal affairs, II 274”, 397, 406,
427, 431
Pound, I. 59, II. 261, 360
Priory, I. 125-48, II. 451
Protestantism, I. 61, 177, 179, 183,
185, 238, II 46, 74, 90, 98, 111,
134
Puritans, I 114, 166, 177, 183, 210,
212, 222, II 467, 50, 243, 332,
369
Quakers, II. 135-237
Racing, I 117, 240,251, II 174,249,
269, 270
Railways, I 300,308, II 325, 428-30
Rebellions, I 40,49, II 146, 414, 416
Recreation grounds, II 436
Reformation, I 95-8, 141-6, 157-60
Reform Bill, 1832, II 425
Registers, I 108-9, 169, 191, 192,
235,11 28,35, 415, 455,459, 467,
472, 474
Restoration, the, I 103, 222, 241,
II 682 , 141, 246, 298
Riots, I 39, 74, 248, 254, 256, 266,
273, II 290, 420-1
Rivers, I 46, 69, 117, 149, 228, ITI.
243, 268, 351, 359, 37°, 494
Roman, bricks, I 72, camps, II 354,
cemetery, II 410, coins, II 251,
villa, II 410
Rotary Club, II 436
Sacrilege, II 36, 288, 320
Sanctuary, II 28, 282
Scavenger, I 289—91
Schools Adult, II 232-3, 480, Bap-
tist, II 95, Blaxland’s, II 220,
British, II 422, Brown’s, II 234,
396, 503, Caldicott, IIT 433,
Church, II 316, Free School, I
166—9, II 83,416, 502, Grammar,
II 116, 117, 433, 434, Rad-
cliffe’s, I. 131, 147, Ragged, II.
133, St Mary’s, II 430; St
Saviour’s, II 430, Sunday, I.
104, II. 92, 96, 124, 1247 , 233 Nn.
VOL. II,
KK
513
Scolds, I 56,238, 1I 379
Screens, I 88—g9
Ship money, I 176
Silk mill, IT 429
Slave trade, I. 109, II 91, 228-9, 235
Slums, II 211, 361, 436
Spinning, I 248
Sports and Pastimes, II 238-75
Star Chamber, Court of, II 52, 291
Stocks, II. 322
Strawplait, II 319, 320, 431
Surnames, II 366-81
Surveyors of highways, I 279, 280-8,
295
Tanning, I 46, II 373
‘Taxation, I 186, 187, 199, 200, 260,
II 60, 420
Tithes, I 24, 47, 73, 127, II 29, 55,
90, 136, 139, 215, 295, 475-6
Town Hall, II 428, 433, 436
‘Trained-bands, I 176, 182, 186, 190,
191, 195-6, 205, IT 53
Tramps, I 58, 254, 258, 266, 271
Transportation, II. 315
Trigg’s Coffin, II 347
Turnpikes, I 283, 291-300, 421
Tyburn ticket, II 320
‘Uncle Toby’s’
120” ,II 250
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, II 229n
original, I 119,
Vehicles, I 287, 300, 306, 307
Vermin, I 260
Vestments, I 93,140, 11 28, 47
Vestry, I 237,252,271, II 319
Vicarage, I 102, 102 2, II 436
Vicars, II 444-6
Villeins, I. 23, 27, 34, 37, 41, 42-3,
45, 54
Visitations, I 229, 234
Volunteers, II 318, 376, 421, 431,
498
War Memorial, II 434-5, 450, 500
Wars American, II go, Barons’, I
33, Civil, I 176-207, Franco-
Prussian, II. 482, the Great, I.
107, II. 95, 432, 434, 447-50,
Napoleonic, I 271, 274, Il 421,
Roses, I 40, 49, 87, 139, Seven
Years, I 226-7, 257, Testimony
against, II. 161-4, 226-8, 482
514
Weather, exceptional, I 74; II 120,
412, 420, 425, 433, 466, 497
Whuipping-house, I 238, post, II 322
Wills, I 83, 92-3, 139-40, 145, 156—
7, 160, 164, 167, 259, 279; II
27, 28, 167, 327-49
Windmills, I 48, II 395, 398-9, 423
Windows, painted, I, 85-7, 107, 128,
Tl 38, 451, 457
Witchcraft, II. 291, 293, 383, 490
SUBJECTS
Woollen burial, I 229, 238, 254; II.
332
Wool trade, I 34, 41, 78, 85, 100, 118,
151, 248, II 221, 373, 426
Workhouse, I 240, 247, 250-2, 254-5,
260, 267, 272-3, 274, II 167, 413
Worthies, II 453
Yeomanry, Herts, II 323,
O.C and ruse, II. 323-4
435;
PERSONS
Abbot, Archbishop, I ror, 102
Thomas, I 81, 82
Abbott (schoolmaster), II 167
Adam Bros (architects), I. 116
Adam le Rous, I 126, 127, 128
Adams, Sarah, II 68, 74, 74 n.
fElfnoth, II 357
‘Ethelgifu, IIT 356, 357
Alan, lord of Galloway, I 31, 32
Albemarle, Duke of, II. 60
Albert of Jerusalem, I 125
Albon family, I 120
Dan, II 270
Obadiah, I 232
Albury, Margaret, II. 340
Aldis, John (pastor), II. 95
Alehorn (wagoner), IT. 375
Alexander (Carm ), I 144
Alington, Sir Giles, II 343 2.
Allen family, I 231 2.
Joseph, II 187
Philip (beadle), I 2327
Phoebe (formerly Lucas), II. 206,
207, 220, 221, 235
Samuel, II. 218, 219, 219”, 221,
227
William (bellringer), I 107 7
William, II 228
Amelia, Princess, I 306
Ames, I 159
Amos, ‘long,’ II 265
Anderson, Sir Edmund, L C J., I. 164
widow, I 169
Andrew, of Hiche, ITI. 287
Richard, II 282
Andrews, H. C , II 21
Angell, Richard, II 87, 92
Anglesey, Earl of, II 63
Anne, Queen, I 104 7 , 234, 254, 300,
301; II 364
Queen of James 1,IJ 51
Annesley, Dr , II rox
Ansell family, I. 248, 265, II 269
Aram, Eugene, II. 316, 317, 317 7.
Archbishops of Canterbury, II. 63,
227, 345
of Paris, II 227
Archdeacon of Huntingdon, I 76, 122,
234, 236, 242, II. 30
Arnold, Elizabeth, IT. 121
James, IT. 125
Joseph, IT. 32
Arundel, Earl of, Richard, II 288
Ascham, Roger, I. 113, r14", IT.
242 7
Ashton, Henry (Vicar), I 98
Ashwell, ‘Thomas, I. 135, 137
Asplin, Ward, II. 325 2.
Astrix vel Astrye, Margerie, I. 279;
II 27, 42, 335, 336, 338, 345
Thomas, II 338
William (Lord Mayor), II. 27, 335,
338, 345
Athelstan, son of Tovi, I 25
Atkinson, Samuel, II 244
Atte dane, William, II 285
Atwell, George, II 417
Audley family, I 180
Agnes, II 338, 339
Francis, I 168
Joane and daughter, II. 339
John, I. 245, II 335
Matthew, II 336
Ralph, II 328
Robert, II 337
Auger, William (priest), I. 99
Auncell, Susan, I 98
Austin, William, II. 407
Backhouse, James, II. 219 7.
Bailey family, I 259, 273, If. 61
Baldock, Thomas, II. 121, 138, 141,
144, 146
Bale, John (Carm ), I. 135
Baliol family, I. 66, 78
Alexander, I 37
Bernard, I 29, 30, 111
Devorgoil (daughter of Alan), I. 31-
37 passim
Eustace, I 30, 31
Guy (Wido), I 29, 37
Hugh, I 30, 31, 37, Il. 24, 283
John, I 31-36 passim, 224, 233
John, King of Scots, I. 37, 75, 126;
IT. 24
Ball, John, I. 139
Balle, John (bailiff), I. 37
Barclay, Mrs Gurney, II. 430
John, II. 186
Robert, II. 151, 174, 175, 178, 181,
216
Bardolf, Amice, II. 26
Robert, II. 25
516
Bardsley, Canon C. W., II 366-78
Barefoot, Jolly, Captain, I 254
Bargus, Rev. Thomas, II 312
Barham, C. L, II. 265, 398, 405-7,
496
C L,jun,I 15, 1I 3822, 4067,
495-6
Barker, John, II 146
Barnardiston, George, I 242
Barnes, Matthew, I 256
Baron family, I. 292, II. 127, 260,
266, 421
Barrington, Sir John, Bt , I 109, II
35
Lady (6 Draper), II 35
Sir Thomas, I. 191
Bartlett,C A ,II 431
Battel, Rev ,I 301
Battell, Affabel, I 109
(cleric), I 178
Batten, Benjamin, II 322, 323
Baudoc (Baldock), John, 14th Cent ,
II 287
Bawd (als Bauld), Thomas, II 380
Beagarie, John, II 5727
Beal, Mary, II 203
Beaufort, Henry, Cardinal, I 135
Margaret, Countess of Richmond,
II 242
Beaumont, Agnes, II 75, 453, 462
Beaver, George, I. 2977, Il. 425,
453
John, II 431
Beck, Elizabeth, I 169
Elizabeth (Quakeress), I 305, 306
Richard, II 176, 177, 187
Thomas Barton, II 168
William (architect), II 168
Beckford family, II 251
Bedford, Duke of, I 226
Beech, Thomas, II. 117
Beldam, Samuel, I 172
Belknapp, Robert, II 286
Bell, Walter G , II 382
Bellamy, Adey, II 192
Belsham, James (pastor), IT 111
Benedict, the Jew, I 30, 30”, 43
the Saint, I 69
Benstede, de, Edward, II 286
Bentley family, I 120
Dr (of Trinity), II 252 7.
William, I 256
Berry family, I 235,11 112, 148, 149,
342
Berthold( Crusader), F 125
PERSONS
Bertlott family, I 46, 93; II 330, 331,
336
Bess, ‘Dumb,’ and child, I 261
Besse, Joseph, II 55, 199
Bessemer, Sir Henry, II. 378, 423,
453
Bevan, Joseph Gurney, II 206 7
Beverle, Amice, Anne and Elizabeth
II 25
John de, II 24, 25,25 ” , 240, 241
Beverley, Robert, I 96, 122
Earls of, I 275 2
Bewley, Joshua, I 294
Bigg (magistrate), I 252
Joan, I 1697
Ralph, II 7o
Billeter, Tobias, I 50,50 7
Binford, Rachel (Carolina), II 225 2.
Bird, John, I 1427
Bishop of Bath and Wells, II 25
Ely, II 25
Lincoln, I 242,
48, 48 n , 330
Blaize, Bishop, I 85, 86
Blake, Admiral, I 217
Blomfield, Sir Arthur, I. 107
Bloom,E F D ,II 443
Bloomfield, Robert (poet), II 234,
235 7
Blunt, Sir Thomas Pope, I 51
Boadicea, II 410
Boden, John, Sarah, and Thomas, IT.
340
Bodfish, Rebecca, I 248, II 304
Bodger, of Port Mill, II 430
Bogdan, James, 1 61
Wilham, I 62, 292
Bohun, Humphrey de, I 80
Boleyn, Anne, I 49, 142
Bombproof (volunteer of H), II 376
Bonfield, Alice, IT. 102
Bonner, Bishop, I. 142
William, I. 166
Boulton, Major, I. 199 2
Bovencourt, Guy de, II 24
Bowly, Ann, IT. 177
Bownas, Samuel, II 207, 208
Bowstock, of Minsden, II 37, 38
Boyvill, Elizabeth, Abbess, I 95
Bradley, Ann, II 92, 453
Samuel, II 462
Bradshaw, John, regicide, I 214
Bragge, Francis (Vicar), I 101, 104,
104; II. 33, 34”, 253, 348,
453
II. 30, 34, 35,
PERSONS
Brampton, Lord, v Hawkins, Justice.
Brand famnly, II 251
Hon Thomas, II 421
Bridgman, Sir Orlando, II 143
Bright, John, II 235, 235 ” ,274
Bristow, Timothy, II 266
Miss, II 435
Bristowe, Nicholas, I 96
Broad, John, II 94, 95
Brockett family, II 26
Captain, I 178
Edward, II 139, 142
John, Sir, I 96
Wiliam, IT. 343
Broke, Richard (Justice), II 345
Bromfield, William, I 265, II 453
Brown, Isaac, II 167, 233, 234, 396
Dr John, II 58
William (carrier), I 301, 302
William (pastor), II 110
Browne, Edmund, I 92
Major-General, I 195, 196, 197
Bruce, Robert, I 33, 38, 111, II. 412
Bryer, Rev C F, II. 433
Buckingham, Duke of, I 205, 206
Fanny, II 134
Bum, Josias (constable), II 297
Bunyan, John, I 120, 199, II 55, 56,
57, 58, 59, 60, 69, 71, 75, 78, 79:
83, 95, 96, 136, 139, 330, 451,
457,458, 459, 463, 464
preaching tours, II 56, 57
Aunt Alice buried at Hitchin, II 55
Sister Elizabeth baptized at Hitchin,
II 55
his wife at Hitchin, II. 55
John, yun , II. 55, 76
Matthew, I 265
Thomas, II 55
William, II go
Burlingham, Samuel, II. 213
Burnet, Bishop, I 142, 142 n.
Burr, Thomas, M D., I. 63
Thomas (Quaker), II. 141, 144,145,
187
Burrough, Edward, ITI. 139
Burton, John (pastor), II 59 7.
Burwell, George, II. 27
Bute, Marquis of, II 395
Butler, Dr (of Trinity), I. 108 2
John (Carm), I. 140, 141, 142,
145
Sir John, I. 96
Button, Samuel, II. 461
Buxhale, John, I. 137, 138
517
Bychance, Mary, witch, II 291, 292,
379
Byde, Sir Thomas, II. 417
Byngham, Richard (Justice), I 40
Byrd, Rebecca, II 205
Byron, II 235
Cesar, Sir Julius, I 164
Cain, Abel, I. 261, 307, II 379
Calamy, Edmund, II 62, 65, 108
Cambridge, Earl of (Edmund Plan-
tagenet), II 25, 289
Camme, Wiliam (Abbot), II. 26
Campion, Roger, I 31
Cannon, Lizzie, I 173
Canon, Walter (Carm ), I 133, 138
Canute, King, I 25
Capel, Arthur, Lord, I 179, 188
Carlisle, Earl of (4th), I 116 7.
Carter family, II 84
Colonel, II 31”
Elizabeth (formerly Lucas), II 35
Jeremy, I. 168
John, I 40
William C ,II 131; II 3207
Cartwright, Thomas, II 47, 47 n,
332
Catharine of Braganza, I. 61
Catford, Robert H , II 232
Cavan, Earl of, II 432
Cecil, James, Visct Cranborne, I. 292
Sir Robert, I 51, 246
temp Charles I , I. 189
Secretary, I. 239
Cecily, v York, Duchess of.
Chalkley, George, II 304
Isaac, II. 382, 398-403
John T , II 407
Chamberlain, Thomas, II 273
Chamberlayne, Sir Edward, II 60
Chambers family, I. 180
James, II 339
John, II. 321
John (1519), II. 341
Judith, IT. 299
Richard, II. 47, 48, 51 7.
William, I 83, 93, 1577.3; Il 334
Wilham (1551), II. 343
William (1673), II. 299
William (poor’s overseer), I 245
Chandler, Ebenezer (pastor), II 78
Chapman family, I 120
Anne, I 109, 263
Daniel, II. 266
518
Chapman family—(contd.)
George (poet), I. 97 2 , 108, II. 248,
330, 440, 453
John, I. 101, 109
Thomas, I 52, 245, II 330, 336
William, I. 66
Charles Edward Stuart, Prince, I 225,
226
Charles I., I 51, 53, 176, 177, 179
180, 181, 182, 183, 194, 195, 196,
2OI, 203, 204, 207, 2077, 208,
210, 212, 280, II 245
Charles II , I. 60, 61, 115, 119, 180,
208, 221 nm , 222, 225, 233, 11 35,
6o, 63; go7, 98, 103, 141
Chauncy, John, I 255
Sir Henry, II. 143
Cheetham, James, I 93, 140; II 27,
337, 345
Chester, Robert, Dr , I. 184, 184 2.
Chidley, Katherine, II. 97, 98
Samuel, I. 102, 103, 212, 213, 214,
216, 216”, 217, 218, 219, 220,
221, II 52,97
Churchman, High Constable,
wife, II 62, 63
Clapham, Professor J H., II 452
Clark, Isaac, II 320, 340
Clarke, Anne Milicent, I 117
Charles John, I 1177
John, II 137
Clarkson, Thomas, II 228
Cleveland, John, II 53 7
Clisby, John, I 187
Clive, Lord, I 256
Cloud, Joseph (Carolina), II 225 7
Cobham, John de, I. 127
Lord, II 328
Cockayne, Reginald, II 290
Richard, Colonel, I 199 2.
Cocker, Mary (white witch), IT. 292
Cocks, John, I 160
Thomas, I. 165
Codfish, Lucretia, IT. 376
Coe, Thomas (Quaker), II 187
Coffyn, Sir William, I 50, 144, 145,
146
Coke, Agnes and John, I 47
Coles, Thomas (pastor), II 103, 104
Collison, IT. 251
Collop, John, I. 209, 222, 222 n.
Coningsby, Sir Ralph, I 51
Thomas, I. 257
Cook family, I. 46, II. 36, 115, 205,
296
and
PERSONS
Cooke, Edward, Attorney-General, I.
164
Cooper family, II 70, 99, 119, 122
Copman, Christina and Philip, II. 285
Corbyn, Samuel (pastor), II 65
Cornfoote, Sarah, I 259
Corrie, George, II 340
Corse, Henry, II 337
Cotton, Edwyn, II 339
Humphrey (Vicar), I 99”
James, II 339
Sir Roger, I 49
Coulson, Daniel, II 453
Courtenay, Archbishop, I 136, 137
Coutts, Thomas (banker), II 261 7.
Cowper, William, II 235, 389
Coxe, Bishop of Ely, II 68
Nehemiah, II 68, 69 7
Crabb, John, II 274, 421
Craft (town-crier), II 272-3
Crafton, Susanna, II 183
Cranmer, Archbishop, I
159”
Crawley family, II. 153, 193, 194, 200,
216, 270, 296, 308, 389
Cresset, Captain, II 68,687
Cripps, John (highwayman), I 304
Cromwell, Oliver, I 166, 186m, 187,
187 7 , 188, 189 7 , 194, 197, 201,
2O0I NM, 202, 203, 204, 205, 210,
21I, 211M, 215, 217, 220, 221,
222, 234,11 53,537,54,183 7,
246
Richard, I 221,221 7
Thomas, I 967, 143, 144, 145,
145” ,158, 1587 , 159
Croocar, Thomas, I 160, 161
Crook, John (Quaker), II 140, 163
Crouch family, I 46, 144, 145, 146;
II. 146, 169
Crumpe (Cistercian), I 136
Cuckoe, Robert, I 187
Curling, John, II 325, 453
Cussans, J E,I yon ,318
Cymbeline, II 251, 410
143, 158,
Dacre, Lord, I 119
Dacres, Sir Thomas, I 187
Dalbier, Colonel, I 206
Dalderby, Bishop, I 76, 77
Dallom, als. Joyner, John, I 218,
218 n.
Damplip (preacher), I. 143
Danne, Joan (witch), II 291
PERSONS
Danvers, Robert (Justice), I 40
Darby, Deborah, II 200
Darling (Lord), I 304
Darton, Charles, I 60
Thomas Harwood, II 265
Dashwood family, II 26
Dauban, Phoebe, II 273
Priscilla, II 313
Dauntesey family, II 25, 26, 42
Davey, John, II 407
David, King of Scots, I 32
Davies, Emily (of Gurton College),
Il. 272
Dawson, John, II. 344
William, II 234, 268, 426, 483
Day family, I 50, II. 176, 197, 267,
322, 341
Deadman (volunteer), II 376
Deighere, William, I 46
Delmé, Emilius Hy , I 117, 117 2.
Delmé-Radcliffe family, I 107
Emulius, I 232, 240, II 267
Francis Augustus, I 117
Frederick Peter, II 261-5, 453
Ralph, I 118
Denton, Captain Bailey, II 431
Denne, Henry, I 184, 184” ,213”7,
II 52, 53, 54, 55, 59, 59”, 62,
67, 96, 138
Dermer family, I 59, 281, II. 103
Desborough, Lord, II 238
Despencer, le, John, II 284
Edward, II 25
Devon, Earl of, I 40
Dewsbury, William (Quaker), II 157,
222
Dickinson, James, II 151, 151
Dillwyn, George (Philadelphia), II
225 n
Dimsdale, Dr. (snoculator), I. 266,
II 117
Dimsey family, I 120, 261
Dives, Sir Lewis, I. 190
Dobbs, II 87
Docwra family, I 207 n
Edward, I 245
Elizabeth, II 330
Henry, I. 207
Sir Henry, I. 256
Pernam,I 166, 178
St. John, I 207”, 451
Thomas, I. 50, §1, 52
Doe and Roe, II 377"
Drage, William, II 453
Drake, Sur Francis, I 165,256
519
Draper family, I. 180, 245
Edward, II 73, 74, 142
George, I 61, II 35, 150
John, I. 57, 251
Robert, I 168
Samuel, Gypsy, II 453
Susan, Lady Barrington, II 35
William, I 167; II 293
Ducarel, Dr (Lambeth), II 251,251 7.
Duncalf, Isaac, I yon
Dunnage, William, I 105, 110, 315,
ITI. 36, 340, 451
Dunstan, Archbishop and Saint, II
356, 357
Dunstaple, John, I 40
Durrant, John (Carmelite), I 140
Dyer family (bell-founders), I 98 ”
Nicholas (cleric), II 46, 47
Eade family, II 91 7 , 327, 421
Eadric, Abbot,OSB,I 69, 70
Eadwig, King, II 356, 357
Eddy, John L (Ohio), II 225 2
Edge,S F,II 270
Edith, Queen, I 26
Edmondson, William (Quaker), II
179
Edmunds, Richard, I 118
Edward the Confessor, I 25, 26, 27,
28, 40, 83, 98, II 359”
Edward 1,1 33, 37,11 24
Edward II, 1 79, 126, 144”
Edward III , I 38, 39, 79, 112, 127,
144” ,150, 11 24,25 ” , 36, 240,
241, 289
Edward IV ,I 41, 48, 82, 86, 94, 140,
140 n
Edward VI ,I 98, 1602” , 236
Edward, Black Prince, I 39
Edward, Earl of March, I 41
Edward, Earl of Rutland, I 39
Eeles, Dr Luke, I 263, 3012
Nathaniel, I 184
Ekwall, Professor E , II 350-8
Elizabeth, Queen, I 52, 64, 67, 114,
142” , 163, 225, 236, 239, 2455
II 364
Elizabeth, Queen of Henry VII , I 48
Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of Edward
IV., 1. 83, 86
Ellenborough, Lord, II. 309, 310
Ellwood, ‘Thomas, ITI. 144, 193
Elryngton, Alice (6. Middleton), IT.
343 7.
520
Elstow, Abbess of, I 278
Elyot, Sir Thomas, II 244
Emmuson, F. G , II 21
English, W. H., II 265
Erasmus, I 49, 121, 236
Essex, Earl of, I 182, 183, 1877,
190, I9I, 192, 192”, 193, 194,
239, II 65
Ethelred, King, I 47 7
Eugemus (Legate), IT. 412
Everitt, John (highwayman), I 303,
304, IT 453
Eversale, Thomas, I 109
Evetts, William, II 250, 251”
Ewesdin family, I 112
Exeter, Duke of, Thomas, I 134
Marquis of, II 242
Exton, Mary Ann, II 221, 232, 487
Mrs., II 229n
Fairbeard, Edward, I. 253
Fairfax, Sir Thomas, I. 54, 1877,
202, 203, 204, 205, 257
Falconer, Ion Keith, II 266
Fanshawe, Sir Richard, I. 60, 61,
1897
Lady [Anne], b Harrison, I. 60,
1897
Thomas, I 164
Thomas, Viscount, II 144
Farey family, I 264, 265, 284
Farr, John, I 262, II 29, 30
Featherstone, Susan, II 150
Featley, Damel, Dr , IT. 53
Fell, Margaret, II 142 2.
Feltham, Maria, II 231
Felton, John (Dean of Caius), I. 166
Fenn, Samuel, [I 70
Field family, I. 304; II. 71, 76, 87,
142, 146, 149, 193, 306, 332
Fisher family, I. 66; II 612, 248,
302, 308, 309, 364
Fitch, W J ,1I 211%” , 232, 453
Fleetwood, Lord, I. 219, 221
Flint, II 273
Foot family, I 306, 307; II. 396, 441
Forster, William, II 184, 193, 228
Fortescue, Sir Adrian, I 145 2.
Foster family, II. 58, 58 2., 73, 89,
250
Arthur, II 407
A H., II. 443
Birket, II. 234 and 2.
Canon C. W., I. 15, 68; IT. 327
PERSONS
Foster family—(contd )
Edward, II 5827, 81, 89
John, II 70, 87, 88
Matthew, II 399
Matthew Henry, II. 58 2
Oswald, II 172,230” ,272, 348,453
Wiliam, I 246, II 129
Fothergill, Dr , II 199, 250
Fox, Albert Ebenezer, II 453
(attorney), I 242
George, II 135, 137, 137”, 138,
140, 145, 149, 150, 151, 163, 164,
17I, 176, 179,1797, 181, 183 my
188, 202, 203, 210, 231
Margaret, II 179
Stephen, II 339
Francis, Mary and Thomas, I. 115 2.
Freeston, Thomas, I. 252
Fryday, Elizabeth, I. 93
John, I 83
Fryer, Mary Ann, II 213
William, II 245
Gaunsford, Rev George, II 430
Galton, Francis, II. 177 2
Gamble, I 169,259
Gardiner, Bishop, I 112
Garnet (ex-slave), II 229
Garrard, of Lamer Park, I. 189
Sir John, I 198
Gasquet, Cardinal, I 15, 125
Gatward, Benjamin, II 470
John, II 269, 397
Joseph, II 265
Geard, John (pastor), I 237; II 88-
96 passim, 119, 120, 124, 389, 420,
461-3
George I ,I 251, 269,II 2497
George II ,I 105, 225, 226
George III , I 257, II 90, 318
George IV , I 117, 117” , 232, 240;
II 228, 255, 267, 425
Geree, John, I 208
Gerish, W B , II. 494
Gibbs, William (cleric), II 74, 417
Gibson, Mary, II 193”
Gifford, John (pastor), II. 56
Gilbert of Sempringham (Saint), I.
150-6 passzm, 166, 170, 170 2., 175
Gilbertson, J H., II 427, 432, 435
Gilby, Henry (beadle), I. 230, 261
Gill, John, Dr , IT. 94
Glaisyer, Phoebe Lucas, II. 2282.,
453
PERSONS
Godfrey family, I 94,259, 264, II. 28,
36, 337
Godly, Rev. Stephen, II. 254 n.
Goffe, John, I. 46
Goldsmith, Mary, I. 233
Gordon, Rev Wilham, DD ,II 123
Goring (the headless horseman), I.
207, 207 7.
Gosnell, Janet E , IT 434
Gotobed family, II 378
Gough, Richard, I r117”;II 34
Grace, Watson, II 231
Graham, Dr Rose, I 15, 149, 153
Grave family, I 109, II 28, 338
Gray, Abraham, II 192
Isaac (Quaker), II 158
Green (aeronaut), II 267
Mercy, II 183
Greenhill, Brother, II 106
Gregory family, I 253; II 306
Grellet, R C ,II 265
Stephen, II 198, 221, 223, 228, 480
Grey, Lord of Wark, I 1862
Griffith, John (pastor), II 132-3
Griffiths, John (pastor), II 118, 119,
120, 121, 122, 124
Grimston, Lord, I 240
Gripper, James, II 167
Grubb, Sarah, II 157
Gunning, Peter, II 55
Gurney, Edmund, II 192
Gutteridge, Mary, II 107
Guy, Thomas (founder of Hospital),
I. 264
Guyse, John (pastor), II ro5—6
Hailey family, I. 272, 292; II 260,
346, 423
Haire, Joseph, I 63
Hale family, I 187” , 287, 292; IT
249, 251
Lieut -Colonel, II 419
(M FH), I 260
(MP), I 240
Sir Matthew, II 58
William, II 386
Half-hide, Henry (Keeper of the
King’s Game), II 245
Hall, Chronicler, IT 242, 242 7.
John (cricketer), II. 265
Hammond, John, II. 339
Hampden, John, I. 183, 189, 192
Brig -General Viscount, II. 21, 432
Hanscombe family, I 54,259,260,292
521
Hardgrove, Thomas (the
huntsman), I 41, II 240
Hardicanute, I. 25
Harding, Thomas (wizard), II 292,
383
Harmsworth, Sir R Leicester, II 21,
57,730"
Harold, King, I 25, 26, 27, 28, 287,
66, II 24
Harper, John, II ror
Harrison of Balls Park, I 189, 189
Harrison, T Fenwick, II 451
Hasylwode, John (mason), I 877
Hawkins & Co (solicitors), I 312,
313, 324, 329, 337, 346, II 21,
327, 456, 490, 493
Hawkins family, I 107
Sir Anthony Hope, II 21
Dan, II 256
Frederick, I 107” , II 348, 424
Henry (Justice), II 324, 325,325”,
402
John, II 107, 325, 325 ” , 346, 423,
425, 453
Haworth, Pastor, II 100, 105, 139
vel Hayworth and Hayward, II 100
Heard, William (bailiff), I 57, 11 299
Heath, John, II 32, 33, 34, 36
Heathcote, Michael Unwin, II 21
Hemmunge family, I 61,1407 , Ii 27,
338, 344
Henrietta Maria, Queen, I. 51, 53, 60,
61, 180
Henry I ,I 72”
Henry II , I 30, 71
Henry III ,I 31, 32
Henry IV ,I 40, 41
Henry V ,I 39, 134
Henry VI ,I 89, 134
Henry VII ,I 48,49, II 44
Henry VIII, I 48, 49, 52, 95, 112,
128, 131, 141, 142, 144, 145, 146,
158, 160,189” , II 44, 242, 243,
King’s
364
Hensley, Lewis (Vicar), I 108, 1087 ,
II 268
Henson, Rev. Josiah, voc. ‘Uncle
Tom,’ IT. 229
Herdson (purchaser of Priory), I. 146
Herte, James (Vicar), I 86
Hicca, tribe of, II 351, 356, 357
Hich, de, Isaac Judaeus, II. 280
Hiche, de, Reginall (miller), I 48
Hiche, als Biche, Scholastica, II 379,
380
522
Hickman, Rev. Edward, II 41, 116,
117, 118, 128, 330
Hildesley, Mark (Vicar and Bishop),
I 102”, 104, 116, 235, 2357,
236, 238, 264, 304, IT 113, 253,
254,453
Hill, Arthur, II 435
Rowland, Sir, II 427
William, II 268, 395
Hinde, Captain Robert, I 119, 120,
120” , 287, 292, II 250, 453
Hine family, II 84, 155, 156, 371
John Green, II 2362.
Mrs Reginald, II 21, 436
Thomas, I. 63 7 , II 155, 426
William, II 155, 167
Hupgrave, of Pirton, I 306
Hitchin, Charles, II 302
Edward, II. 100, 104, 109, 114
Thomas, II 102
Hoag, Lindley Murray (New Eng-
land), II 224, 225
Hobbes, Goodwyfe, II 296
Richard, I 245
Hobbs, Alexander, als Joe the Hatter
(highwayman), I 305
Nathaniel, I. 168, II 297
Hobson, Captain Paul, Il. 53, 54, 60,
61, 61 2 , 67, 96, 99
Hockley, Jeremiah (spinning master),
I 248
Hodges, Richard, II 50
Hogarth, William, II 321
Hopkinson, Archdeacon, I 231
Holbein, M (swimmer), II 270
Holcroft, Francis, II 62, 63, 64, 65,
67, 70, 71, 96, 99, 139
Holdsworth, Professor W. S., II
276
Holgate, Robert, I. 158, 158
Holland, Earl of, I 205, 206
Hollis, Thomas, II 75, 75” , 77, 78
Honeybone, Susan, II 273
Hoo, Thomas atte, II 290 7.
Horseshoe, Edward, I 256
Horsfield, George, II 260
Hoskins, Isaac (pastor), II. 109, 110
Howard, John, ITI. 307
Lady Frances, I. 116 7.
Luke, II. 205
Sir Robert, I 62, 176, 217
Howitt, Mary, II. 178
William, II 185
Hubbard, Boney, I. 249 n.
Huchyn, John, II. 240
PERSONS
Huckle family, I. 120; II. 140, 293,
341, 342
Huckleberry, Amos, I. 281
Huddlestone, John (Vicar), I. 245;
II 28, 445
Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, I. 73
(Carm ), I. 133 7.
vel Hugo le Prestre, I. 73, 74, 74 n.
of Bayford, II 281
Eversden, Abbot, I. 78
Hughes, George [Tom Brown], II 265
Guy S , II. 21
HG S ,II. 265
Jack, II 265
Thomas (author), II. 363
Hull, Henry (New York), II 223
Richard, II 325 2.
Humberston, Robert, I 199 7
Humblestone, Thomas, II 336
Hunt family, I. 49, 199 7 , II 51,279,
284, 285
Hurst family, I 60, 180, 226, 248, II.
61, 247, 253, 295, 296, 299, 328,
339, 340
Hurthevene, Edith, II 289 2
Hussey, Joseph (pastor), II ror, 102,
105, 465-8
Hutchinson, John, Dr , I 263, II. 71,
77
Huyshe, Wentworth, I. 326; Il. 412,
433
Hynde, Robert, II 337
Ignotia, Sarah (foundling), I. 261
Impey, Samuel, II 114, 125
Ine, Laws of, II 358
Innocent IV , Pope, I 125
John (labourer), I 40
Inskip, Wickham, I 309
Ireton, Henry, QM G., I 200, 201
Isabella, Queen of Edward II , I. 150
Ithell, Benedict, I 243, 252, 287
Jackson, George, II 274
Rev R W ,II. 92
William, ITI. 397
James, Isaac, I. 21 7.,314, II. 37, 81,
104
James, M. R., I. 15, 152
Samuel, II 347 , 62, 82, 83, 84, 86,
87, 88, 94, 96, 453
James I., I. 51, 52, 100, 101, 114, 176,
181, 246, 263, 280; II. 48, 244
PERSONS
James II ,I 207” , II gon
Janney, Thomas (Quaker), II 151,188
Jeeves family, I 69,120, II 258, 261,
296
Jeffreys, Judge, II 249
Jenkins, James, II. 191, 193
J Heald, II 433
Jermyn, Henry, II 404
Jessop, Ann (Carolina), II 225 ”
Jewel, Bishop, I. 121, 236
Jobson, Sir Francis, I 97
John, King [Lackland], I 30, II 24
John, King of Scots, v Baliol, I 126
John of Berkhamstead, I 126
John [of Gaunt], Duke of Lancaster,
II. 25
Johnson, Dr Samuel, I 63, II. 340
Maurice, I 21 , 61-3
Richard, II. 431
William, II 231
Jones, El1 (New England), II 225,
231
Rebecca, II 206 7
Rufus, M , Dr , I. 15, II 135, 163,
171
Joyce (Cornet), I. 204
Joyner family, I 120, 227, II 340
Judith, cousin to William Rufus, I.
71,717
Katharine of Aragon, I 49, II. 243,
364.
Katharine [Parr], Queen, I 160
Keach (hymnologist), II 87
Kean, Charles, II. 269
Keate, Sir Jonathan, II ror
Kelsey, Thomas, II 70
Kemp (stage-driver), I 307
Kempe, Anna, I 167, 168
John (sword-cutler), I.
169 7.
Joseph (cleric and schoolmaster), I
165, 166, 167, 1677, 169, 172,
174,175
William, I 165
(Trustees), I 170, 173, 174
Kenealy, Dr., II. 402
Kendale family, I. 66
Edward de, I 42, 112, 150, 175,
233; II. 24
Margaret, I. 79, 151
Robert, I 37, 111, 112, 126, 150;
IIT 24, 288
Kendall, John, II. 192
168, 169,
523
Kershaw family, I. 120, 253, 300, 306,
307-8, II 131
Kidner, Rev Thomas (Vicar), I 236;
II 35, 54, 98, 138, 139, 140, 298
Kilbye, Thomas, I 282
Kimpton family, I 50, II 115, 156
King, Benjamin (Vicar), I 184
Kingsford, H S ,II 21
Kingsley, Charles, II. 270
Kirby, John, II 312
Kirkham, Walter, Bishop of Durham,
I 32, 33
Lacy, John, II. 286
(play-actor), II. 261
Lambert, John, I 22r
Lancaster, Duke of, v John [fof
Gaunt]
Lane family, I. 116-17, II 90, 140,
296
Langford family, II. 26, 26 n, 42,
454, 455
Anne (6 Beverle), II 25
Edward, II 26
Sir John, II 26, 455
Robert, II. 26, 454
(Widow), II 115
William, IIT 25, 119, 390, 454
William Francis, II 262 , 400, 434
Langley, Edmund de (Duke of York),
I 39
Stephen, I. 248
Langton, Stephen (Archbishop), I 31
Latchmore family, I.231, II 232,262,
266, 274, 431
Laud, Archbishop, I 177,177” ,185,
II 50, 137
Laundy, Mary, II. 169
Lautour, Captain, II 265
Law family, I. 93, II 248, 339
Lawrence family, I 255, II 140, 197,
243,247
Lawrenceson, James (Jacobite), II.
393
Layton, Dr Richard, I 157
Lee, Sir Richard, I 189, 189 7
de la, Geoffrey, I 39
Leget, Edward, I 39
Le Hardy, W , II 21
L’Estrange, Hamo and Margaret, II.
288
Roger, I 37
Letchworth, John, I 46
Leuc:, tribe of, II 2407.
524
Leventhorp, Sir John, I. 256
(Vicar), I. 95 7.
Levy, of London, I 298, 298 2
Lewin family, II 262, 270, 398, 404
Lightfoot, Lydia, II go
Lincoln, Bishop, v. Bishop
Sarah, II 305
Lindall, Elizabeth and Lettice, I 180,
II 35
William, Rev , D D. (Vicar), I 180,
184, IT. 35, 58, 59, 136, 137
Lindsell, A J G,II 436
Lines, Arthur, II. 270
John, II 265
Linney, Charles, II 231
Liquorish (widow), I 234
Laster, Elizabeth, II 184
Isabella, II 234 ”
Joseph, Lord, II 233, 234”
Joseph J , II 23427 , 266
Iittle,J E,1I 457,11 443, 494
Livesey, Sir Michael, I 206
Llewelyn, Prince, I 37
Lock, vel Locke, II. 64
Thomas, II 65,75, 99
Logsdon, Edwin, II 273, 405, 4057,
406, 495
Longmore, Sir Charles, K.C B., IT.
21,2767 , 432
Louis Napoleon, Prince Imperial, ITI.
228
Love family, I. 40, 140-1
Lovell, John, II 329
Sir Thomas, II 414
Lowther, Sir John, II. 142
Lucas family, I. 180; II 176, 1832,
240 N , 252, 26627 , 476, 487
Alice Mary, II 21, 1832”, 213
Ann [17th Cent ], I 233
Ann (Quakeress), II 206, 209, 213,
221, 232
A. W. Tindall, II 240”
Benjamin, IT. 183 2 , 340
Elizabeth, afterwards Carter, IT. 35,
167
Francis, I. 132; Il 742 , 213, 218,
234, 325 ” , 428, 451
James, II 346
James (the Hermit), IT 453
John (17th Cent ), II 140
John (18th Cent ), I. 292
John (Quaker), II 161
John of Rouen, II. 240 7
Joseph, II. 172, 217 2., 226
Marianna, ITI. 2173
PERSONS
Lucas family—(contd )
Mary, daughter of William Lucas,
II. 238
Matilda, II 21, 213
Phoebe, II 170, 200, 206, 220
Rachel, II 176, 177, 187
Ralph, II 219
R B,II 1832
Richard, I 245
Robert, I 59, 234
Samuel, I 161”; II 157, 1777,
178, 178 n., 218, 2182”, 2207,
229,233 2 , 234,234 7,255, 267,
269, 379, 430, 480, 487
Stephen, II 21
Theodore, I 15; II 21, 317 7 , 453
William (Quaker, 17th Cent), I
233,11 146, 147
William (18th Cent), I. 251, 301,
II 38, 1247
William (19th Cent ), II 146, 147,
167, 171, 177, 210, 229, 238, 254,
266, 266 7 , 267, 312, 317, 3197,
320 7 , 392, 394, 395, 453, 489
William Tindall, IT 21, 428, 435
Luckout (widow), I 180
Luke, Sir Samuel, I 198, 198 7 , 200,
201,201” ,II 54
Lydgate, John, I 132
Lyle family, I 57, 248, 251, 259,
292
Lytton family, I 189,292, II 251
Earl of, II 21
Rowland, I 51; I1I 339, 416
Sir Robert, II 332, 339
William, II 26
Macadam (road-maker), I. 285, 299,
308
McCleery, Rev James, IIT 94
Maddingly, Luke, II 136
Malet, vel Malette, Henry (Vicar), I
99, II 46n
Malkin, George, II 378, 379
Manchester, Earl of, I 186”, 187,
187 1 , 190, 194, 200, 201
Manns, Samuel, II 156
William, II 166
Mansell, Dr. (quack), IT. 348, 453
Manser, Edward, IT. 213
Emuly, IT. 234
Mary, II 213
Marmion, I 33
Marsh, Frederick, II. 212
PERSONS
Marshall family, I 59, 93, 295, II
146, 303, 312, 329
Marsom, Samuel, II 81, 269
Mary [Tudor], Queen, I 98, 1427,
1607 , II 47, 339
Mary, Queen of Scots, I 50
Massey, Sir Edward, I 205
Master of ‘Trinity, I 95
Matthews, John, I 305
William (Carolina), II 225 7
Mattock, John, I 167, II 416
Nicholas, I go, II 27, 331
Maulden, Joseph, II 121
Maundeville, John, II 286
Mawer, Professor A , II 350, 362
Maxwell, George, I 85 7
Maylin, William, II 322
Megre, John, I 47
Mellon, Harriet, Duchess
Albans, II 261, 261
Michael (Teutonic Knight), I 134
Middleton, John, I 139, II 331, 336,
of St
343
Wife Alice (afterwards wife of Sir
Thomas More), II 343
Tabitha, II 205
Midwinter, Dr , I 266, 292, II 304
Milton, John, I 217
Miulway, Thomas (pastor), II 68
Minnis, Herbert, II 468-70
Moll, ‘Mumbling,’ I 254
Moncke, General, I 221, 222
Moles, William (incendiary), II 320,
390
Monk family, I 40, 109, 221”, 261,
II 297
Monmouth, Duke of, II 146, 249
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, II 303
Montfort, Simon de, I 33
Moody, Edmond, I 140, II 243
Moor, Cordelia, II 340
Moore family, I 120, 169, 172, 230,
257,259, Il 347
More, Sir John (Judge and father of
Blessed "Thomas More), II 343
John (son of Blessed Thomas
More), II 3437
Sir Thomas (Blessed), I 142,144 7
Wife Alice, relict of Muddleton,
II 343, 343 ”
Morell family, II 119
Rev Thomas, II 131
Morgan, John, II. 345
Pilkington (Vicar), I 104, 232, 236,
292, II. 254
525
Morice, Ralph (Cranmer’s Secretary),
I 158,159
Morris, Deborah, II 205
John, II 174
Sarah, II 205
Susanna, II 199
Morriss, Mrs W. F , Il. 464
Mortimer, Roger, I 33
Moss, Thomas, II 144, 203
Mouldy family, II 379
Moule, Alice, II 172
Moulton (afterwards Lord), II 272
Mountjoy, Lord, I 49
Mounton, John (Prior of Biggin), I.
157, 160
Musgrave, Sir William, I 1167
Naftel, Mary (Guernsey), II 205
Napoleon Buonaparte, I 1172
Nash family, I. 120, 169, 187, 262,
II 115
Nayler, James (Quaker), II 140,147,199
Needham, John (pastor), II 77,78, 80,
81, 82, 83, 86, 87, 94
Mary, II 81, 82
Neile, Richard (Archbishop of York),
II 50
Nevill, Ralph, II 238
Nevison, John (highwayman), I 302,
303
Newcastle, Duke of, I 61, 63, 301
Newman family, I 229”, 268, II.
119, 146
Newton family, I 120
Ann, I 261
Edgar, II 496
George, II 44
Isaac, I 104, II 391-7, 488
John, II 274, 386
John, Rev , II 389
Mara, II 72
Robert, II 391, 423, 495
Tabitha, II 376
Niblock, Joseph, I 104, II 392, 453
Nicholas of Hereford, I 136
IV, Pope, I 37, 71 7.
Saint, II 27
the Red, II 280
Nicholls, Charles (attorney), I 304
Nichols, Thomas, II 115
Norden, John, I 280, II 350
Norris, Sir John, I 190, 191, 256
William, II 266
Northumberland, Earl of, I. 195
526
Oakley, Richard, II 453
Occum, Samson (American Indian),
Il. 84
Oda, Archbishop, II 357
Oddy, Joseph, II 64, 65, 99, 139
Odell, Oswell, II 307
O’Donnell, Elliott, II 397
Offa, King, I 69,697 , 70,707 , 106,
106 7., 234, II 251, 356, 359
Oke, William de (wholesale murderer),
II 289”
Osborne, of Chicksands
292
Ossory, Earl of, I 292
Oughtred, William (mathematician),
II 342, 3427
Outlaw, Ann, I 233
Owen, John (Vice-Chancellor of Ox-
ford), II. 66, 67, 68, 99
Oxenham, Thomas, II. 127
Priory, I
Pack (Baptist), II 84
Paddon, David, II 262
Page, William, I 15, 70
Pain, William, I. 260
Palmer, Herbert, I. 184, 185, 188
John, II 291, 292
Richard, II 311
the Witch, II 291, 292
Papworth family (woolstaplers), I
85 2, 92, IOI, 119, 1407, 180,
189, 193, 245, 273, 281, II. 337,
339
Parker, Sir Henry, I 96
Parmeter, Rebecca, I 99
Parr, Elizabeth, II. 315
Parry, Charles, II 234 2.
William (Wymondley Academy),
II. 128, 131
Parys, Thomas (Cromwell’s spy), I.
143, 145, 146
Passfield, Lord (Sidney Webb), I
15, 245, 253, 277, 283, 288
Paternoster family, I. 19, 120, 281,
293, 306, 307, Il. 166, 274, 324,
325
Pawpitt, John, II. 328
Paxton, William, II. 93 7.
Payne, Alice, II. 232
Humphrey, I 110
Richenda, II 237
William, ITI. 232
Pearce, Supt , M.F.B., II. 405
Pearson, Ralph, 1. 301
PERSONS
Pease, Edward, II 172, 230, 430, 484
John, IT 212
Peckover, Edmund, II 191
Peel, Dr Albert, I 15; II. 97
Sir Robert, I 230
Peirce, Rev Stephen
Hitchin), II 28, 58
Peisley, Mary (Quaker), II 199
Penington, Isaac, II 183 2 , 203
Penn, Francis, II 146
William, II 155, 176, 183, 193, 199,
213, 216
Pennefather, Mary, II. 292
Penney, Dr Norman, I 15, 11 135,
485-7
Penrice, Sir Henry, I 251, II 306
Pepper, Emily, II 232
Percy, Earl, I 33
Perken, Edward (Quaker), II. 203
Perkins, Thomas, I. 108
Perks and Llewellyn, II 147
Perks family, I 120
Dr Watson, II 128, 129, 348
Perrers, Alice (mustress of Edward
ITI), I 38,38” , 44,11 36
Perrot, John, II 150, 2197
Phihp I , II 243
Philip and Mary, I 279
Phillips, Harry (Jew), I. 295
Hugh, II a1
Miss L. E , II. 435
Piddle, of Stevenage, I 306
Pierrepont, Alissimon, II 31
Pierson and Crabb (bankers), II 274
Pierson, Christiana Jane, II. 344
Joseph Margets (banker), I 292
Stephen William Clarkson, II 334
‘Thomas Gorham (solicitor), II. 256,
333, 334> 334% , 343, 432
Wilham, II 232
Pike, Margaret, II 1807
Pilgrim (‘Uncle Toby’s’ batman), I.
119g
Pinckeney, Captain James, I. 199
Pinfold, Sir Thomas, I. 242
Piozzi, Gabriel, Mrs. (widow of
Thrale), I 63,63 2
Pitcairn, Andrew (King’s falconer),
II. 245
Pitt, Caleb, II go
Pitts, Joseph (pastor), Il. 111, 112
Plumb, Ephraim, Peregrine, and
Woolmardine, I. 55
Plumer (M.P for Herts), II. 11x
Poland, King of, I 134
(Vicar of
PERSONS
Pole, Cardinal, I 96 n.
Pollard, Joseph, II 2347
Pope, Dr , I 305
Pope, The, of Rome, temp Geo I,
II 249
Powell, Donald, II 407
Power, Dr Eileen, II 327
Poynter, Sir Edward, PRA ,I 107”
Preedy, Arthur, II 431
Prier, Edward, I 281
Prime, Charles, II] 264, 264 7
Prior, the, of Charterhouse, I 137
of Hertford, I 278
of Kmghts of St John [Thomas
Docwra], I 245
Pryor family, I 289, Il 159, 160,
344
Prussia, King of, I 226
Pulling, Alexander, II 433, 494
Pulter family, I 59,81, 82, 92, 111-12,
245; If. 27, 331, 335, 415
Pumkin, John, I 2497
Pym, John, I 179, 187, 189, 192, 216
Pyne, Benjamin (goldsmith), I 10g
Radcliffe family, I. 112, 115, 118,
144 2 ,147,287,292, II 249,251
Ann (6 Chester), I 181, 184, 187
Arthur, 1 116
Charles Farnaby, Sir, I 110
Dr , I. 263
Edward, Sir (physician), I] 101, 113,
114, 263, II 244
Edward (2nd), I 114, 180, 181, 187,
203, 207 7 , 208, 233, II 35
Edward (3rd), I 115
Edward (4th), I. 115, 115”, 116
Elizabeth (afterwards Ivory), II, 35
George, I 116, 117
Jeremy, I 113, 114
John, I 116, 1162 ,117, II 422
Mary, Lady Radcliffe, I 110, 236,
II 1467
Penelope, I. 117
Ralph (1st), I. 112, 113, 114, 131,
147, Il. 44, 46, 337, 453
Ralph (2nd), I. ror, 113, 114,
242-3
Sir Ralph (3rd), I. x15, II 52,
81, 139, 145, 146, 146 m, 147,
251, 299, 300, 302
Ralph (4th), I 115, II 375
Ralph (sth), I 116, II. 2x
Rand, John, II 29072.
527
Ransom family, I. 64
Alfred, II 217, 232, 260
Aunt to Mercy R , II 183
Edwin, II. 229
Eliza, II. 232
Francis, II 21, 479, 488
Jane, II 2357
John, II 261 2 , 317 1.
Joseph, I. 292, II. 153, 192, 200
Joshua, II. 176, 267, 429
Mary, II 153, 190
Mercy (6 Bell), II 173, 175, 182-3,
184, 198-202, 220
Theodore, II 232, 435, 484
William, II 213, 217, 2297, 232,
234,272, 410, 453, 485
Raven, John, I 166
Reade, vel Read, Alissimon (widow of
Pierrepont), II 31, 31 ”
Sir John, Bart ,I 189, 1897, 210,
II 26, 30, 31, 31”, 54
Reason, John, II 36
Reginall de Hiche, I 48
Reid, Cecil, II 265
Repyngdon, Philip (Cardinal), I 137
Reynolds, Jacob, II 407
John, I 265
Rhudde, Anthony, I 62
Richard, King of the Romans, I 33
Richard I , II 3357
Richard II ,I 39, 80, II 25”
Richard III ,I 48
Rigge, Chancellor Cantab , I 136
Roberts family, I 56, II 148,
157 n
Robinson (informer), II 145
Robson, Rev E G U,I 892, II.
434
Rodney, Admiral, I 226
Rogers, James (pastor), II 68
Rolle, Richard, II 335 2
Rose, Affliction, II 384
Colonel J A,II 435
Rosenbach, A S W ,II 21
Rotherham family, I 164, IT. 52, 59,
349
Rowley, Sylvanus, II 302
Thomas, I 252
Rubens, I 114
Rudd, Damiel, II 129
Rugmer, Ann, I 141
Elizabeth, II 383
Rule, Joseph, II. r99 7
Rumbald, Edward, I. 56
Rumball, Charles, IT 311
528
Rupert, Prince, I 182, 183, 190, 192,
194,239, II 297
Russel, Bishop of Lincoln, I 1347
Russell, George Wagstaff, II. 96, 436
Miss Marjorie, II 436
Ryder, Miss Dudley, II 268
Sacheverell, Dr , II 76
Sadler, Colonel, II 54
Lady, II 299
Ralph, I 50, 160
Sir Edwin, I 242
Thomas, I 189, 193, 200, 210, 211,
II 292
Sale, Mrs , of Hinxworth, II 260
Salisbury, 2nd Earl, Wm ,I 176
sth Earl, James, II. 249 2.
6th Earl, James, I 307
2nd. Marquis of, I 272, II 134
Salmon, Rev. —, and triplet sons, IT.
376 n
Samm family, I 248, II 342
Sanders, John, II 314
Solomon, I 265
Sands, David (New York), II 223
Sandys, Archbishop, II go
Saunders (Baptist), II &5
Frank, I 251
Savage, Dr , II 249, 249 7
Say, Sir John, I 49
Scareman, Lettice (spinster), II 379
Scott, Gilbert, Sir (architect), I. 107
Job (Quaker), II 200
Rev —, II 309
Samuel (Quaker), II 175, rgr, 251
Thomas (pastor), II 108
Walter, Sur, II 381 7
Scroop, Colonel, I 206
Seebohm, Benjamin, II 221, 222, 223,
225,236, 482, 485, 486
Esther (6 Wheeler), II 165, 206,
221, 225, 232, 480-6
Frederic, II 217,221, 228, 232, 233,
234, 428, 431, 436, 453, 485
Mrs Frederic (6 Exton), II 221
Hilda, II 232
Hugh Exton, II 428
Segrave, Sir Hugh, I 39
Sergent, John (painter-stainer), I 102
Sewell family, II. 175, 217, 230-2,
269
Sewster, Eleanor (bailiff), I. 55
Seymour and wife, I 266
Seymour, Jane, Queen, I 49
PERSONS
Sharman, P A, IT. 435
Sharples, Eliza, II 232
Isaac, II. 161, 190-3, 199, 4.74
Joseph, II 216”, 232, 235 7,
275
Phoebe, II 117 n.
Sheppard, Henry (pastor), II. 77
J Norman, II 232
Shillitoe, Francis, II 266, 268
F. Rickman, II 265
R Rickman, II 348
Thomas, II 165-86 passim, 198,
207-11 passim, 228, 453
Shorland, F W , II 270
Short, George (pastor), II 95, 95 n.
Shotbolt, Batalion, I 62, II 3817
John, I 52
Shrimpton, John, I. 307
Sidmouth, Lord, II 91
Simnel, Lambert, II 414
Simon the Tanner, II 284
Skeat, Professor, II 352-4
Skegg, Sarah, II 153, 158
Thomas, II 153, 154
Skingle, Daniel (pastor), II 33,337,
34,347 ,35
Skynner, John, I 52, 62,180; II 327,
418
Ralph, I 53, 168; II 3209, 418
Sloper, Charles, Rev (pastor), II 126,
127, 128, 129, 131 2 , 334
Slow, Abraham (constable), II 297
Sly, Rebecca, II 344
Smith of Olney family, II 235, 340
George (poisoner), II 305 n.
Henry, II 299
Samuel, of USA , II. 198, 232 7
Sydney, II 214
‘Thomas (Professor), II 59, 59 7.
"Thomas (rogue), II 304
Smithson, Mrs Sarah, I 15, II 436,
453
Smyth, Ambrose, II 344
John, I 140” ,157",279
Snagge family, I 161-4, 167, 175
Snoodley (preacher), I 231
South, Dr , II 12827
Sparepoint, Moses, I 56
Sparrow, Mary, II 216
Spavold, Samuel, I 275, II 158, 183,
187, 194 et seq , 198, 473, 484
Spencer family, I. 58, II. 249, 265,
299, 300, 306
Sperhawke, John (Vicar), I. 118,118 2.
Spicer, Edward, II 338
PERSONS
Spikenard, Thomas, I. 253
Spriggins, Martha, I. 238
Spurling, Goliath, I. 56
Spurr, George, II. 436
Squib, Ferdinando, I 254
Squires, E. E , II 21
Stallybrass, Elizabeth, II 305 2.
Mary, II 159
Stanton, Laura, II 345
Starr, Barnaby, II. 304
Steeley, James, I 273
Stephen, King, I 29
Stephenson, Robert, IT 430
Sterne, Lawrence, I 119
Stigand, Archbishop, I 26
Stokes, Peter (Carm ), I
II 44
Stone, Edward, I. 223
Story, John, IT. 202, 203
Thomas, II 151,152,180, 188, 199
Stout, Henry, II 148
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, II 230
Strathmore, Earl of, II 265
Strudwick, John, II 75
Sturge, Joseph, II 232
Sturgeon, Sir John (Royal Munitioner)
I 40, 81, 82, 83, 93, 94, 234,279;
II 290, 345, 346, 377
Sugars, John, II 427
Susan, II 375
Sutton, Susannah, I 170
Swain, Mary, II 333
Swaine, Stephen, I 260
Swannell, James, II 372
Swansey, Richard, I 167
Swansley, Richard (Parish Clerk), II.
329
Swett, Mary (New Jersey), II. 205
Sympson, John, II 71, 291
135, 136;
‘Tallwin, John, II 159
Tansley, Joe, Il 273
William, IT 125
Tapp family, IT. 124, 125, 395
Tarboys, Greediana, I. 109
Tavistock, Marquis of, I. 292
Tayler, Edward (corncutter), II 375
Taylor family, I 134,228,1I 56,567
867,151
Tenison, Thomas, Bishop of Lincoln,
IT. 253
Terasse, Peter (Carm ), I 138”
Terry, William (pastor), II 105, 107,
108
VOL. II.
529
Thomas family, I 253, 286, II. 347
Thompson, Professor A Hamilton, I.
15,23, 35, 68, 224
Catherine, II 213, 232, 235
Edward, II 211
John, II 136” ,157 ”, 211, 216,
217, 227 2, 230", 235, 431,
477, 479, 480
Joseph, I 264, 265; II 153
Lawson, II 95, 268, 431, 453
Mary, II. 213, 232
Thomas, II 188—go, 472
‘Thomson, of The Seasons, II. 177,235
Thorogood family, II 73, 106, 314
Thorpe, George and John, I. 260, 261
Thrale, Henry, II 303
Hester Lynch (widow),
Piozz1, I 63
Throe, John, II 383
Thrussell, Steppy, II 256
Thurloe, Secretary of State, II 179
Tillotson, John, Archbishop of Can-
terbury, II 63
Times family, I 120
Charles, 1. 296m , I1 313, 427, 428
Daniel, I 2967, II 453
Lawrence, I 2967 , II 329
Timothy, II 368
William Onslow, I. 2962 ; II 408,
432, 433, 436
Titchmarsh, V A ,II 2657
Titmouse, vel Titmus family, II 377
Titus, Captain, I 197
Toller, Bostock, I 56
Tooley, Edwin, II 270
Tovi, the Proud, I. 25, 26,28” , 66
Trevelyan, Professor G. M, I. 15,
176
Trigg, Ann, II 333, 340, 346
Henry, II 347, 347 7.
Tristram family, I 59, 63, 64, 121,
241, 245, 246, 251, 282, II 287,
293, 332, 335, 342, 345
Trycotte, Edward, I 93, 145, Il. 337,
338
Tuke, Esther, II 205, 2067
James Hack, II 162, 213, 221, 230,
231, 232, 398, 428, 479-483
Margaret Janson, II 236
Samuel, II 220, 221
William, II 226
Turk, John, I 80, 807
Sir Robert, I 80, 80 7 , 151
Turner family, II 142, 146, 148, 151,
152, 153, 188
and vw.
LL
53°
Turpin, Dick, I. 303
Twistleton, Jacob (curate), II. 51
Tydye family, I. 92, 140 2., II 335,
346
Upchurch, William Septimus, II
235 n.
Usher, Mrs Clemens, II. 435
Valoines, Ilbert de, I 28
Van Dyck, I 207” , II 451
Vaughan, Cardinal, II 433
Victoria, Queen, II 403, 429
Vinogradoff, Sir Paul, I 15,23, 34, 36,
43
Voet, Gisbert, I 184
Vyntener, Luke le, II 240, 240 n.
Waite, Joseph (pastor), II. 66, 99
Walden, Thomas Netter de (Carm ),
I 133,134,134 ,135, 137
Waldenfield, Sam, II 193
Waller, Sir William, I 192, 194, 196,
197, 201, 205
Wallingford, Abbot, I 127
Wallis, John (centenarian), I 118
(verse-maker), II 41
Walpole, Sir Robert, I 225, 1I 111
Warbeck, Perkin, I 49
Ward, Thomas, II. 129, 426
Thomas (physician), I 264-5
Warner family, I 236, 251, 279,
II 71, 72, 76, 314, 332, 341, 420
Warren, ‘Father,’ I 246
(preacher) II 301
Warwick, Sur Philip, I 205
Washington, George, II 123
Watson (purchaser of Priory), I 146
Thomas (wagoner), I 306
Wayne, William (pastor), II 130,
130 ” , 469
Webb, James (pastor), II 114, 116,
123
Sidney (see Passfield)
Weekley, Professor Ernest, II. 366,
371, 374, 378
Welwen, Richard (Carm ), I 126
Wesley, John, II 113, 148, 303
Wettenale, Ralph, II. 290
Wheeler, Elizabeth, II.
2357
Esther, II. 221, 226
220, 234,
PERSONS
Wheeler family—(contd.)
Fidelity, IT. 194
Joshua, II. 194
Rudd, II 159, 184, 194
Whitbread, of Southill, I 292
John, I 57
White family, II 225 2 , 232, 335
Whitefield, George (preacher), II 113,
114
Whitehead, Elizabeth, II 424
George (Quaker), II 59 7.
(postman and tailor), II. 273, 274
Wilham, II 302
Whitelocke, Bulstrode, I 210
Whiting, John, II 141
Thomas, II 229
Whitley, Dr W T ,I 15, II. 44, 464
Whitney, James (highwayman), II.
300, 301, 490
John (farmer), II 389
Whittingstall family, I 59, 120, 274,
301, II 142, 315
Widdows, C J , II 408
Wiggs, Joseph, II 136
Wightman, Edward (martyr), II 50
Wilbur, John (Rhode Island), II 224
Wiles, Henry (Vicar), I 228, II 254
Wilkinson, George, II 70, 99, 102
John, II 211
Willegod, Abbot of St Albans, I 69
Willes, Sir Francis, I 297, II 217
William and Mary, I 282
William, Brother (Carm ), I 137
(chaplain of the Biggin), I
1577
William I, I 27,282” ,37,71, II 23
Wilham II ,I 71
William III ,I 207” ,227,II 74, 101
(as Prince of Orange), I 225
Wilham IV ,I 225
William the Lion, I 30
Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, I 177,
203
Daniel (Indiana), II 225 2
Joseph, I 304
Thomas (pastor), II 95
William (pastor), II 123, 124, 125,
126
Wilmer, John (Vicar), I. 210
Nathamiel, Captain, I 210
Wilmot, Justice, IIT 145
Wiulshere family, II 124 , 251, 327
Charles Willes, II 430-1-3
John, II 345
Miss, II 21, 497
T19Q,
PERSONS
Wilshere family—(contd )
Thomas, II. 426
William, I 62, 64, 66, 240, II 119,
121, 124, 250, 255, 264, 314, 318,
319, 342, 421, 422, 424, 453
Wilson, John (pastor), II 69-85 pas-
sem, 94, 96, 330
Samuel, II 78, 787 , 81, 116
Windham, William (statesman), I 298
Wingate, Francis, II 58
Wisebeard, John, I 81, 82, 118
Wittewronge, of Rothamstead, I 189
Wood (lecturer), II. 51, 52
Woodhead, Cranston, II 167, 232
Woolman, John, II 117, 183 2 , 208,
208 7., 225
Wordsworth, William, II 267
Wright, David, II 103, 104, 105
E L,II 265, 274, 449
FLA ,II 265
Noel, II 265
Thomas (pastor), II 108, 109
53!
Wyclhif, vel Wichif, I 136, 136 7., 137;
II 44
Wykeham, William of, I. 39
York, Duchess of, Cecily, I. 41, 86
Duchess of, Elizabeth, IT. 436
Duke of, temp Charles I , I. 180
Edmund de Langley, I 39
Richard Plantagenet, I. 40, 41
Edward, II 414
Yorke, Philip, Viscount Royston, I. 292
Rev A C, II 353, 494
Young, Frank E ,VC , II 434, 449
Rebecca, II 200
Rev. (of Night Thoughts), Il. 254
Zachrisson, Professor R E., II. 350-8
Zarvite, Elizabeth, II. 303
Zimmerman, Father Benedict, I. 125,
335
PLACES
Agincourt, I. 39; II. 414
Aleppo, I. 115, 147
Algiers, II. 148 2
Almshoe, Little, II 362” , 290
Ambleside, II 267
America, North, II go, 167, 2257,
423
Charlestown, S C., II 162
Hopkinton, RI, II 224
Indiana, II 225
Long Island, II 188
New Bedford, II 225
New England, II 225
New York, II 210, 223
North Carolina, II 225 2.
Pennsylvama, II 151
Philadelphia, Pa , II 121, 225 7.
Rhode Island, II. 188
Roxbury, Mass , II 123
South Carolina, IT. 162, 205
Stanford, N Y , II 223
Virginia Plantation, I 101
Westfield, Ia , II. 222
America, South, II 92
Ampthill, I 190, II 140, 140, 154
Amwell, I 268
Antwerp, I 114
Arbury Banks, II 353-4
Arlesey, I. 166
Ashwell (Herts), I 122”, 184, II
149, 353, 354, 396
Assissi, I. 152
Aston (Herts), II 295
Aylesbury, I 142, 196
Baghdad, I 147, IT 435
Baldock, I 39, 205, 229, 251, 266,
II. 105, 138, 141, 143, 144, 287,
332, 386, 388, 396
Barbadoes, II. 143, 151, 188
Barkway, I 267 7 , 286; II. 388
Barley (Herts), I 100
Barnard’s Castle, I. 32, 111
Bassingbourn, II 62
Bedford, I. 69 7 , 142, 182, 190, 191,
196, 203, 204, 226, 294, II 55,
56, 58, 59, 68, 71, 76, 78, 85, 390,
411
Bedfordshire, I. 116 , 183, 190, 194,
196, 201, 247; II. 65, 3327”,
394, 411
Bendish, IT. 56, 57, 76, 400
Bengeo, II. 221 ”
Berwick-on-T weed, II. 412
Biggleswade, II 388, 429
Birmingham, II 120, 132, 232
Bishop Stortford, I 256, II 150
Bohemia, I 238
Boston, II 25 ”
Boulogne, II 415
Bradford (Yorks), II 221
Bragbury End (Herts), II 100
Braughing,I 70m , II 353,357, 369 2.
Breachwood Green, II. 56
Bridgwater, II 77
Bristol, I 190, 192, II. 192, 200
Broadwater, I 190
Hundred of, I. 178
Brockett Hall, II 26
Bucks, I 183, 194
Buntingford, II 388
Bury St Edmund’s, I 202
Buttermere, II 267
Calais, I 118, 143; II. 346
Caldecot (Herts), II 386
Cambridge, I 133, 189, 195, 203,
235”, II 45, 59, 99, 100, 287,
336
Castle, II 63, 647, 65
Chapels—
Pedobaptist, II 70, 71
Presbyterian, II 105
University, I 112, 167, II 44,
287
Colleges—
Christ’s, I 166
Clare Hall, II 62
Corpus, I. 152 2.
Emmanuel, II. 51
Girton (women’s), II. 271, 431
Gonville and Caius, I. 166
Jesus, I 112, 147
Pembroke, I. 119
St John’s, I 159 7., 166
Trimity, I. 53, 90, 95, 114, 232,
263; II. 65, 252, 430, 433,
434
Trinity Hall, I. 165
Cambridgeshire, I. 28, 183, 186 2.,
291 ; II. 62, 65,378 m , 394,411
Caxton, I 291
Chatteris, Church of St. Margaret,
I 27
PLACES
Chepstow Castle, II. 61 n.
Chesfield (Herts), I 2282, II 38
Chicksands Priory (Beds), I. 156, 157,
157 #., 159
Cinque Ports, I. 37, 111
Clothall, II. 249 7.
Codicote, II 285
Colchester, II. 180 7 , 187, 410
Copenhagen, II 180
Cornwall, II 88 27.
Cottered, II. 149
Crecy, II 413
Culloden Moor, I. 226, II 116
Dartford, I. 40
Datchworth, I.
369 n.
Derby, II 137” , 422
Dorchester (Oxon), II. 411
Dover Castle, I. 37, II 24
Dublin, I 211; II 51, 173
Dunstable, I 142, 190, 196, 293
Durham Cathedral, I 33
122 ”"., II 33 7., 114,
Edgehill, I. 182, 218
Edinburgh, I. 290
Elstow (vel Elstowe, Elenstowe, Hel-
enstowe), I 71, 73, 81, 94, 95,
Il. §5
Ely, II 68, 426
Flamstead, I. 184
France, II. 90, 120, 313, 412
Frankfort, II 47
Galloway (N.B ), I. 31-2
Galway, I 211, 211”;II 54
Gamlingay, II 56, 75
Gosmore, II. 81, 244, 248, 296, 388,
389, 420; II. 365
Grantham, I. 81 ., 240 .; Il. 25 7
Graveley (Herts), I 2287 ; II. 370
Gravesend, I. 261
Greenwich, II. 301
Hague, The, I. 115
Harlington (Beds), II. 58
Harpenden, I 184; II. 36
Hatfield (Herts), I 114.7 , 189,256 7.;
Il. 26, 284, 287, 421
Hemel Hempstead, I 70 .; II. 82
Henlow (Beds), I. 293
533
Hertford, I. 190, 226, 254, 258, 266;
II. 117, 140, 143, 146, 2217,
242, 307, 385
Castle, II 412
Chapels, Congregational, II 337,
85, 100, IOI, 105, 106
Dicker Mill, II 261 2.
Gaol, II 73, 76, 308-10, 312
Hundred of, II. 243 2
Priory, I 278
Hertfordshire, I 28, 36, 40, 42, 53,
54, 807, 179, 181, 183, 186-97,
202, 204, 206, 208, 258, 280,
2872, II. 272., 48, 54, 140,
142”, 250, 264, 410, 411, 415,
419, 420
Hertingfordbury, II 2437
Hexton, I. 27, 28, 29, II. 352, 414
High Wycombe, I. 183
Hockliffe, I 194
Holland, II 120, 165, 191
Hulne Priory, I 126
Huntingdon, I 101, 181, 204, 2257,
312, 328, II. 30, 48, 141, 142,
282, 456
Hunts, II. 411
Ickleford, 278, 291, 293, 298, II 52,
105, 292, 325, 394, 406
Ickmeld Way, I. 69, 69 7, 277, II.
353
Ippolyts vel Ippollits, I 71; 11 38, 81,
105, 217, 244, 335, 359, 362,
385, 399
Ireland, I 180, 187 7 , 205, 210, 227,
257, 292; II 30, 54, 191, 193;
196, 198, 200, 413
Islington, I 279
Ivel river, II 355
Ivinghoe, I 194
Jersey, Il. 191
Jerusalem, I 226
Kempston (Beds), I 36-7
Kent, I 40, 239; II 194, 281 7 , 394
Kimpton (Herts), I 53, 63 7 , 98,119
King’s Langley, I. 142
King’s Lynn, II. 317 7.
Kingston-on-Thames, I. 206
King’s Walden, I 28, 53, 178, 187 7.,
287, 292; II 58, 105, 286, 386,
410, 419
Knebworth, I 189, 292, II. 332, 335
534
Lambeth, I. 25, 26
Langford (Beds), II. 357
Langley (near Hitchin), I 241, 268,
268 1 , 281, 286, 289,293, I1. 27,
29, 30, 279, 336, 343, 359, 422
Lannock (Weston), II 352
Leeds Castle (Co Kent), II 25
Leighton Buzzard, I. 194
Lemsford, I 293, 301
Letchworth, I 46, 161, 292, 300” ,
II. 319, 332, 427
Lilley, I 28, 117”, 178, 194, 293,
II 105, 249, 414
Lincoln, I 29, 73, 75, 298; II 257,
28 n , 288, 334
Lisbon, I 61, 1I 116
Lombardy, I 727
London, I 182, 192 n., 222, 265, II
27,71, 75; 254, 385-6
and District—
Blackfriars, I 136
Chelsea, II 343
Tyburn, I. 215
and Features, principal—
Botanic Gardens, Chelsea, II
3167
Chamber of London, II 346
Chapels—
Baptist, II 697 , 76, 84, 85
Congregational, II 111 27
Charterhouse, II 68 7
Churches—
St Clement Danes, II 55
St Margaret’s, Westminster,
I. 234”
St Mary Overy, II 331
St Peter’s, Cornhill, II. 335
Devonshire House—
Library, Friends, II 135 2.
Doctors’ Commons,I 242, II 30
Friends House Library, II. 135,
177 1., 202
Gracechurch Meeting House, IIT.
135, 182 7., 193
Inns of Court—
Furnival’s Inn, IT. 35
Gray’s, I 168
‘Temple, Middle, the, I. 161,242
Mant, the, II 68
Paul’s Cross, I. 134
Port of, I 146
Prisons—
Fleet, I 179; If 64, 140
Marshalsea, II 307
Newgate, I 213, 214; II 280
PLACES
London—(contd.)
Public Record Office, I. 38 #.,
199 7.
St. Martin’s-le-Grand, I. 109
Sign of the Peacock, II. 73 7.
Somerset House, I. 1642; II
327 7
Tattersall’s, I. 117
Thames, the, I. 72
Tower, the, II. 61, 412
Vauxhall Gardens, II. 267
Westmuinster—
Abbey, II. 228
Hall, I. 179
House of Commons, I.
179, 185
Palace, I 144
Star Chamber, I. 178, 179;
II. 52, 291
Whitehall, I 207 2.; II. 142
Lostwithiel, I 161, 193, 194
Lowestoft, II. 289
Luton, I s9”, 110”, 206, 261;
281; II. 81, 85, 132, 221, 395-6,
407 n
161,
Madagascar, II. 230 —1
Madrid, I 60-1
Maldon, I 131, II x19
Malmesbury Abbey, II 26
Manchester, II 120
Marston Moor (Yorks), I 197
Medmenham,I 227 7
Melbourne (Cambs), II 354
Meldreth, II 56, 64
Morocco, I 239
Munden Magna, II. 337 , 34
Naseby, I. 203, 204
Newark, I 812 , 187 2.
Newmarket, I. 280, II 267
Newport Pagnell, I 187, 187 7., 191,
198, 199, 199 7., 200, 201, 210;
II. 56, 137
Norfolk, I. 186 7 , 187, 211; II 200
Norton (Herts), I. 130”; II. 2gr,
292, 375
Norway, ITI. 165
Nottingham, I 33, 181
Oakington, II 65
Offley, I 28, 53, 63, 69, 69n., 287,
292, II 81, 103, 105, 281, 290,
296, 299, 303, 306, 357, 396
PLACES
Olney, II. 235, 340, 390
Orwell, I. 151, 155, 157
Ouse, river, I. 69 7.
Oxford, I 1337., 13472, 136, 186,
189, 190, I91
University Colleges—
Bahiol, I 33, 35
Brasenose, I , 134 7.
St Mary’s Hall, II 362
Trinity, II. 64
University, 1. 135 7.
Palestine, II 225, 231
Piedmont, II 98
Pirton (Herts), I 184, II. 76,254, 281
Plecgy, College of, I 47
Poland, I 134, 238
Portsmouth, II 310, 413
Potton, IT. 388
Preston—
Hamlet of Hitchin, I 28, 53, 242,
250, 2682, 286, 289, II 29,
30, 68, 76, 89, 105, 146, 340, 358,
419, 422, 433
Castle, I 119, 287, 292, II 250
Pulloxhill, I] 154
Purwell (near Hitchin), I 47, II 23,
359, 410, 418
Putteridge, I 50
Pyrmont (Germany), II 221
Quebec, I 226
Plains of Abraham, II 419
Radwell (Herts), I 291
Ravensburg Castle, II 353
Redbourn (Herts), I 206
Rome, II 2497
Rosthwaite, II 267
Rothamstead, I 189
Rouen, vel Roane, I
240 m , 412
Roydon (Essex), I 158
Royston (Herts), I. 652, 145, 180,
203, 205, 247, 280, II 48, 50,
153,245, 249, 332, 388
Rushden (Herts), IT. 149
134, 256, II
Saffron Walden, I 133, 205, II 189,
St. Albaai I. 31, 116, 191, 196, 206,
208, 242, 248, 251, II. 30, 28s,
384, 386, 409
Abbey, I 27,29,41 7 ,69,70,707,
78, 79; 238
535
St Albans—(conid.)
Army GH Q , I. 182
Battle of (Roses), I. 87
Museum, II 362
St Neots, vel Needs, I., 132, 206,
235; II 937 , 123, 426
Salcey Forest (Northants), I. 52
Salterforth, II 196
Scilly Isles, I 114 2.
Scotland, I 32, 37, 75, 176, 189”,
199” ;II 24, 148, 191, 200, 280,
414
Sedgemoor, II 249
Sempringham, I , 149 7 , 159
Sevenoaks, II 370
Sheen, Charterhouse, the, I 137
Shefford (Beds), I 291, II 56, 567.,
64, 234
Shillington (Beds), I 57, 64, 647,
93; II 127
Shipsea (Yorks), II 188
Shouldham Priory, I 152
Sierra Leone, II 91
Smyrna, I 147
Spalding, I 62
Spellbrooke, I 295-6
Stamford, II 25”
Standon (Herts), II 357
Stevenage, I 1222”, 184, 205, 250,
II 272 , 307, 347, 361, 390, 396,
403
Stilton, I 291
Stony Stratford, I , 191
Stotfold, II 83, 154
Strawberry Hill, I 96
Suffolk, I 186 2,211, II 200
Sussex, II 194, 394
Swarthmoor, II 142, 176
Sweetheart Abbey, I 35
Temple Dinsley, I 28, 39, 71, 111,
Iirm, 160”, 189, 210, 242,
243, 287, II 54, 239, 292, 299,
399, 412, 412”, 415, 416
Castle, II 283
Mansion, I 50,200, II. 412
Tewin, I , 64 n.
Thames, river, I 72
Theobalds, I 163
Theydon Garnon,I 977
Threekingham, I 2692
Tilbury Fort, I 114, II 416
Tipperary, Co , I 21127
Toddington (Beds), I 236 7., 284 7.
Totternhoe, I. 75, 194
536
Trafalgar, II. 91
Tredington, II 205
Tring, I. 293
Triplow Heath, I 205
Turkey, I. 227
Wadesmull (Herts), I 291
Wainwood (near Hitchin),
56-8
Wales, I. 37, 254; II. 198
Walkern, II. 426
Wallington, II 377
Walsworth (Walsoe, Walser, Waltons-
worth), I. 47, 60, 246, 257, 282,
283, 284, 286, 288, 289, II. 27,
232, 274,279, 322, 358, 359, 393,
410, 422, 430, 433, 434
Waltham Abbey, I 25-8
Wandon End, I 28
Ware, I 248, 258, 262; II. 203, 265,
309 7., 421
Waterloo, II. 163
Watford, I 183
Watling Street, I 182
Watton (Herts), I. 84”. , II. 284,
3°07
Wedmore, II. 411
II. 23,
PLACES
Wellbury, I. 28; II. 357 2.
Wells (Somerset), I. 118 2.
Welwyn, I. 70 #., 229, 293, 294, 298;
II. 127, 132, 251, 254, 284,
292-3, 357, 401, 407, 488
Wendover, I 190, 194; II. 264
Weston (Herts), I. 28; IT. 393
Wexford, I. 211
Wheathampstead, I. 76-7
Whorlton Castle (Yorks), I. 31
Widdecombe, I. 216; II. 452
Wilbury Hills and Camp, I. 70, 191;
Il. 353, 354
Willian, I. 28, 43, 151, 155, 157;
II 81, 335, 387, 399
Windsor, I. 190, 229, II. 403
Woburn, I. 204
Worcester, I. 211
Wymondley, Great, I. 27, 28, 43, 71,
yin, 104n, 264, II. 128, 131,
306
Wymondley, Little, I. 179; II. 128,
131, 394
Wymondley Priory, II. 331
Yeovil, II. 211
York, I. 181, 278; II. 167
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